The Path of the Dark Signers
by TheSealer
Summary: DISCONTINUED! Used to be called 'Signer or Dark Signer'. What if some of the Dark Signers were different? What if a single change in a detail could change the destiny of some individuals?
1. Roman and Rex

**Signer or Dark Signer?**

**Set in different episodes. What if some of the Signers and Dark Signers were different? What if a single change in a detail could change the destiny of some individuals?**

Underlined_ – _Cards' names

**Bold** – Author Notes

(in brackets) – Life, ATK or DEF points

_Italic _– thoughts

**A single change in an event or scene can change the entire Universe. Here's the first change: What if Rex decided to go with Roman to visit the Nazca Lines?**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 1: Roman and Rex<strong>

Peru, Nazca Lines. 17 before the events of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's

In the Nazca Desert, a jeep was leaving behind a trail of dust and sand. Driving the jeep was a blond, light blue-eyed man, Roman Goodwin. This man could seem like any other. But a closer look at his left arm would show a strange birth mark shaped like reptile's head. By his side, another man stood. This other had equally light-blue eyes, but his hair was black. In addition to that, he had no unusual birth mark on any of his arms. This man was Rex Goodwin, Roman's younger brother.

"I still don't get why you insisted in coming with me, Rex." – Roman commented, focused on the driving.

"I'm as curious about the connection between the place and the Ener-D Reactor as you are. I agree with Dr. Fudo that we should shut the Reactor down, if keeping it activated means endangering the city. But if there's a way to prove the Ener-D is harmless, I'll do it." – Rex replied, honestly. Roman nodded; he wasn't happy about what Professor Fudo had declared, but he had no right to put Neo Domino City in the brink of annihilation. However, if there was any proof that the Reactor should stay active, he would take it.

"We're here." – Roman announced and stopped the jeep. The Goodwin brothers had arrived at Nazca Line of the Condor. Rex immediately used a small thermometer-like sensor, analyzing the area inside the geoglyph of the Condor. The small machine beeped frenetically, surprising both man.

"Roman, according with the Enerdymometer, this place has the exact same energy as the Reactor. And I'm not talking about proximities. It's _exactly_ the same!" – Rex informed, his eyes wide open.

"Then I guess our journey here was worth it." – Roman took a look at the landscape. – "But there's still a lot to analyze."

"I'll stay here, analyzing this area." – Rex said, taking some more equipment of his own. – "You move to the next one."

Roman nodded, before driving off. The younger Goodwin had more readings equal to the ones the Ener-D Reactor showed. '_Why is this energy just like the one coming from the Reactor? Where is the connection?_' – Rex Goodwin mumbled in his mind. It wasn't long before he noticed he wasn't alone. A man dressed in white clothes, whose face was occulted appeared.

"Who are you?" – Rex inquired.

"I'm from Yliaster. We have taken an interest in you and your brother, Professor Goodwin. Shame you boss wants to shut down the Ener-D Reactor." – the man spoke calmly, like they were talking about the weather. That obviously took the scientist by surprise.

"How do you…"

"You and Roman want to prevent Fudo from shutting down the reactor. The research must continue, right?" – the man continued. Rex could know the mysterious man was smirking. – "Tell me, have you ever paid silent attention to the reactor? Have you ever stopped to hear what the light of the Ener-D could tell you? If you do that, you can hear the light speaking."

"You know what? I think the sun light you caught in your head has fried your brain." – Rex muttered, getting slightly nervous about this man. Despite the man appearing to be crazy, he also knew things only they were supposed to know. – "Why are you telling me all of this, anyway?"

"Because you and Roman are bond to the Reactor and the events it will cause, by destiny. Your brother is even more connected; due to a certain mark on his arm." – the Yliaster member said. Rex's eyes went wide.

"How do you know about that mark? My brother has that thing ever since he was born." – Rex asked. The man turned around, intending to leave. – "Wait! How am I and Roman connected to the Ener-D, in that way? How can it influence our fate? And what voice are you talking about?"

"Don't ask me. Ask the voice. It will tell you all you need to know." – the man said, before the wind blew, carrying sand and dust with it. When Rex reopened his eyes, the man was gone.

_Three days later…_

Three days later, the Goodwin brothers were back in Domino City. Their voyage to Nazca was in vain. Though they had proven the radiation of the Ener-D was also present in Nazca, they were unable to find any connection. Hence, there was no proof that the Ener-D was completely safe. The shutdown of the Reactor was imminent.

"_What can we do"_ – Rex muttered in his thoughts, desperate. – "_Professor Fudo will soon pull the plug on the Reactor."_

The scientist then recalled what that man said. He had told him to listen to the voice. But, how could even the light communicate with him? And how could that help him?

"_Well, I have nothing to lose._" – the younger Goodwin mumbled mentally, heading to the still activated Reactor Room. The space was empty, which was perfect. Rex stood there, silent for 1…2…3…10 minutes and nothing. – "_I knew that man was insane_."

But then Rex stopped. He felt something on the back of his mind. Something trying to communicate with him. But not in words. Whatever was 'talking' wasn't using words, but emotions and memories. The light glowed brighter, threatening to blind Rex, but that didn't happen. The light just engulfed him and showed him things he never expected to see: five demons rising from the Nazca lines, a dragon made of fire and five other dragons battling the demons…

When the vision stopped, Rex finally understood everything. The door to the Netherworld, the ancient battle, the Crimson Dragon and its Signers, the Earthbound Immortals and Dark Signers…everything! But it didn't stop there. Something else appeared on the Reactor: it was the geoglyph of the Condor. Recklessly, Rex approached the glass shielding the Reactor and touched it. Suddenly, a violent shadow was unleashed from the Ener-D and entered Rex's body, while the man screamed.

_One day later…_

"Rex, there you are!" – Roman called out, entering the room where Rex was hidden. The younger Goodwin had just stole the control of Ener-D from Professor Fudo. The professor managed to steal three of the four cards used to seal the towers. Later, Fudo entrusted them to Roman. – "Rex, you attacked Professor Fudo just to keep the Reactor activated? Have you lost your mind?"

Rex looked at him, sweating like someone who had just run a marathon.

"Get out of here, while you still can, Roman!" – Rex demanded. – "Take the cards Professor Fudo gave you and find the other Signers!"

"But, why?" – Roman asked, looking at his birth mark.

"You were marked by the Crimson Dragon to protect this world, Roman." – Rex said, revealing his right arm, which was now marked with the geoglyph of the condor. – "I have been marked to serve the darkness. Go before the darkness inside me takes over, again!"

"But, what should I do?" – Roman asked, worried about his sibling and the state he was in.

"Find the other 4 Signers than return here and defeat me and the other Dark Signers! Promise me that!" – Rex demanded, firing a laser pistol at Roman to make him flee. Half an hour later, Rex was struggling to get to the keyboard. He raised his hand, ready to push the button that would make the Ener-D spin backwards and cause Zero Reverse.

"And with this…I shall be reborn as a Dark Signer!" – and Rex pushed the button which caused the event that would be forever written in New Domino City's history. From a great distance, Roman watched as the ocean engulfed the only connection between the Satellite and the city. He had just arrived at New Domino City and watched with horror what his little brother had unwillingly caused.

_17 years later…_

Roman Goodwin, now 17 years older, was now the head of Security Sector and a respectful citizen of New Domino City. He watched the Satellite, where he and the Signers Yusei, Jack, Akiza and Luna were soon going to.

"Soon brother…very soon, I shall fulfill my promise." – Roman said, looking at the Mark of the Dragon's Head on his arm.

* * *

><p><strong>You like it? Please read and review! This was just a simple start. And in case you're wondering, this fict IS NOT just switching Signer with Dark Signer. The Dark Signers I will be inventing have something related to the original Dark signers. But you'll have to wait.<strong>


	2. Kalin and Crow

**Signer or Dark Signer?**

**Set in different episodes. What if some of the Signers and Dark Signers were different? What if a single change in a detail could change the destiny of some individuals?**

Underlined_ – _Cards' names

**Bold** – Author Notes

(in brackets) – Life, ATK or DEF points

_Italic _– thoughts

_Italic and centered_ - transitions

**A single change in an event or scene can change the entire Universe. Here's the first change: What if the last of the Duel Gangs had came back with a vengeance?**

**Chapter 2: Kalin and Crow**

Neo Domino City, 4 years before the events of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's:

In the Facility Detention Center, a young man named Crow Hogan was sitting in his lonely prison cell. The red-headed man had several criminal marks on his face, including an M on his forehead. Crow was severely injured, due to all the abuse from the guards. But, what really left him hurt the most was every horror that happened to him, recently.

**Flashback:**

Four months ago, the Enforcers had just defeated the last Duel Gang, the Bikers, making the Satellite a better place to live in. Kalin threw off the map:

"So, now I guess we need to find ourselves a new enemy." – Kalin said, laughing and the rest of the group laughed with him. Later, Crow returned to his hideout, where he knew he would find his little siblings.

"Hey, guys! Guess who's back?" – he asked/shouted, happily. However, there was no answer. – "Hey guys! Come on, stop fooling around. Hikari! Daichi! Kokoro!"

Crow entered the hide out and gasped. The sight before him was a nightmare. His children! His siblings! Taiga, Daichi, Dinga, Kokoro, Hikari…all of them were lying on the ground. All of them bleeding, some of them stabbed. Hikari's eyes were opened, petrified, lifeless…

Crow could hardly breathe. He could not even bare to contain the tears. The duelist fell on his knees and cried into the night. In the next morning, he would find a note from the Bikers, written in blood: _'That's our payback, Enforcer!'_

**End of the flashback**

In the Present, Crow's eyes were teary from the memory. In the next week after that sorrowful night, Jack, Yusei and Kalin heard about someone challenging the remains of the beaten Duel gangs. Whoever this person was, he beat them cruelly and killed them once their LP hit 0. When the 3 Enforcers went to investigate, they were astonished to find out it was none other than their friend Crow.

Crow could still remember their faces when they found him along with the corpse of a former Biker. Crow shouted at them, telling what the bastards did to his family. The 3 of them were shocked, but Yusei was the first to say:

"_Crow, I know it hurts…but this isn't the right thing to do. You're becoming like those bastards who killed your kids."_

That led to an argument and the argument led to Crow storming off. Days after days, more and more dead duelists appeared. Jack, Kalin and Yusei always arrived too late to stop Crow. Until, one day, Crow did a great mistake: challenged a Security officer and killed him.

Soon enough, the whole Sector Security was on his trail. They managed to trap him in a building. His friends showed up, claiming to be there to save him. Yusei volunteered to go out there, while Crow, Jack and Kalin escaped.

"Some friend he was." – Crow muttered bitterly, his empty eyes filled with hate. However, destiny decided to give him another bad memory to add the list. Security managed to capture him. When Crow was been taken to the van, he saw the Security Chief _congratulating_ Yusei for his _help_.

"Yusei, you traitor! How could you do this to me?" – he shouted before been locked up, waiting for execution.

In the facility, Crow was often beaten up by the guards. But that was nothing compared to when they took away his deck. Everything he loved, everything he lived for was gone: his siblings, his freedom, his deck…even his friends were gone, despite they were never his friends in the first place.

The door opened and two guards came in. They were going to escort to the electric chair:

"Time to go to the afterlife, Crow." – one of them spoke. Both guards picked him up not so gently and dragged him to the execution room. He was placed in the chair and the guards placed the electric helmet on his head. Only one though ran through his mind, before the electric charged killed him

"_I hate you Yusei Fudo."_ - the charge was fast and painless and in the blink of an eye, Crow Hogan was dead. In the darkness, Crow heard a voice calling out to him:

"_Crow_…"

"Who's there? What gives? Am I not supposed to be dead?"

"_Yes, you are dead._" – the voice whispered.

"Who are you?" – Crow asked.

"_I am Itzpzpalo. I'm here to give you a gift: a new life and power. You either choose to die and go to the afterlife or choose my path, the path of the Dark Signers."_ – the voice offered.

"Dark Signers?" – Crow questioned.

"_Yes, be my Dark Signer and my servant and I'll grant you unlimited power. Power to seek revenge against who did you wrong."_ – Itzpzpalo said. Crow didn't even need to think twice:

"Yes. I accept. I want to make Yusei pay. And, I also want…" – Crow did not finish the sentence, as he felt the powers of the shadows of the Netherworld appear.

**And Crow becomes the 2****nd**** Dark Signer. This was short, I know, but don't worry for things are about to warm up. I'm sorry for having no duels do far, but that will soon change. And, one last note. With this update, I'll be changing the order of the chapters according with the timeline. Plus the chapter **_**Carly and Leo**_** will be split up in the part when Leo turns into a Dark Signer and the Leo vs Sayer part. And I've changed the end of the chapter **_**Triple Duel Leo VS Sayer**_


	3. Toby and Misty

**Signer or Dark Signer?**

**Set in different episodes. What if some of the Signers and Dark Signers were different? What if a single change in a detail could change the destiny of some individuals?**

UnderlinedCards' names

**Bold** Author Notes

(in brackets) Life, ATK or DEF points

_Italic _thoughts

_Italic and centered_ transitions

**A single change in an event or scene can change the entire Universe. Here's the first change: What if Misty decided to accompany Toby to the Duel of the Black Rose?**

**Chapter 3: Toby and Misty**

Neo Domino City, 3 years before the events of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's

In the famous model Misty Tredwell's apartment, a boy just entered the living room. The brunette blue-eyed boy seemed to be 14 or 15 years old. He was wearing a blue jacket of the Duel Academy uniform. His name was Toby Tredwell.

"Hey, sis! I'm back from school!" Toby hugged his big sister, Misty Tredwell. The model had long black hair and small grey eyes. However, she was happy to see to the boy. Toby took a small object from his pocket. It was a golden pendent, with no picture inside. "Check it out. I got you a birthday present."

"Thanks, but my birthday was 3 months ago." Misty said, though her smile didn't die.

"Yeah, but I was away at school. So, better late than never, right?" Toby replied. Misty accepted the pendent and put it around her neck.

"It's beautiful! I'll put a picture of you in it and wear it everywhere I go." Misty thanked with a smile.

"Hey, guess what? I was down by the pier and I saw someone dueling. Someone like me." he told her, excited. At this Misty frowned, concerned.

"You mean, someone with your powers?"

"She's like really awesome! Her name is Akiza. She's with this group who call themselves the Arcadia Movement."

"I'm not liking the sound of that, Toby." Misty warned.

"Why not? Why shouldn't I hang out with people who understand me and support me?" Toby said. Misty looked into his eyes. Despite all the disregard he had suffered from their parents, he had never turned against her. Misty loved her little brother, as he loved her.

"OK, Toby. But just in case, I'll be going with you. I want to see what this Arcadia Movement is all about." Misty decided.

_Later, that day…_

Misty and Toby were both by the pier, watching a duel between some random guy and a young woman, dressed in robes, wearing a white mask: the Black Rose Witch.

"I now Synchro Summon Black Rose Dragon!" the Black Rose Witch shouted, making the giant flower-like dragon appear. Misty was taken aback by the pain the Black Rose inflicted on her opponent.

"This doesn't sound good to me." Misty whispered to herself. Toby on the other hand, only observed the Black Rose with amazement and near worship. Misty caught something by the corner of her eye: a group of man and woman were talking, around a corner. They were all wearing the same robes as the Black Rose Witch. "Toby, stay here for a minute. I'm gonna check something out."

"Sure thing, Misty." Toby responded. Misty carefully approached the mysterious group, which didn't know she was eavesdropping.

"…You know that Toby Tredwell kid? He wants to join the Movement." one woman said.

"Well, he better make a better performance than the other rookies. Most of them didn't survive the first test." a man commented.

"Quiet! You want someone to hear us?" another woman warned.

"Oh, please. Even if someone finds out, we have that chump Goodwin to protect us." the man countered. "So far, nobody could prove those people who disappeared into the Arcadia Movement were actually killed."

Misty would have gasped, but she knew that was the same was giving away her location. That Arcadia Movement was even worse than she first thought. She had to warn Toby!

But before she could even move, someone fired a laser pistol on her back. Misty could feel her injury bleeding terribly. The wounded model fainted. The man who had fired was red-headed and had a cruel glare. He picked up the woman not very gently and tossed her to middle of the group.

"Master Sayer!" they shouted.

"What is this woman…" one of them beg not ask.

"Thanks to you worthless drags, this little rat almost discovered everything!" Sayer snarled.

"Forgive us, Master." one of them begged. "But what about the woman?"

"Hey, I know her. That's Misty, the sister of one of our candidates, Toby." a hooded woman said.

Sayer looked at the Black Rose dueling. Akiza was getting out of control. Perfect timing.

"You just get out of here and I'll handle this. Once I returned to the HQ, I want you in my office, you hear me?" Sayer said sharply. The Psychic group retreated immediately. On the crowd, he recognized Toby. Some of the spectators were considering running away, for Akiza's powers were damaging the pier. With caution to not been seen, Sayer dragged Misty unconscious body to a wall nearby. He then made his escape to the top of a building where he could see everything.

"_Now, time for phase 2_." Sayer smirked. He used his Psychic powers to make Akiza's go completely berserk. Black Rose Dragon began to cause random destruction, causing everybody to flee the area.

"Oh, uh!" Toby shouted, taken a few steps back. But he couldn't leave without Misty. "Misty! Where are you sis? We have to get out of here!"

Only then Toby saw Misty sat up, lying against a wall and unconscious. Toby ran to his big sister.

"_And now, phase 3!_" Sayer used his Telekinetic abilities to make a piece of the wall of the building to shatter and break apart, falling over the unconscious model. Toby was still far to be caught by the impact, but he witnessed firsthand what happened. "_Now, the only one he has to blame is Akiza."_

"Misty! No, sis!" Toby ran to the pile covering his sibling, his face twisted in horror and denial. He tried to pull of the rocks and debris covering Misty. "Misty! Please be ok! MISTY!"

_One week later…_

It was a rainy day in Neo Domino City. Toby Tredwell walked aimlessly through the pier, alone and soaked. His once full of life eyes were empty and emotionless. However, his heart wasn't emotional: misery, regret and loneliness were all he had.

It didn't even mattered to him that mom and dad blamed him for Misty's death at the funeral. For also blamed himself for that. If he had gone alone to the pier, Misty would have never died.

Toby was so engulfed in his sadness that he didn't even noticed he was to near the limit of the pier. With one small slip, Toby fell into the cold ocean water. Only one thing was on his mind, before he touched the surface of the water:

'_Misty is dead and it's all my fault…_'

A few hours later, a boat of Sector Security rescued the unconscious boy. His skin was pale and his heart beat weak. The officers took him to the hospital. The dying boy could only make out a few sentences, not that anything mattered to him. His mind was a blank.

"It's Toby Tredwell, suffering from a severe case of hypothermia, doctor!" a nurse announced.

"Hurry…we're losing him." then Toby let out his last breath.

The boy felt himself dwelling in the darkness. A small voice whispered in his ears.

"_Are you willing to die? To leave this world, without doing nothing because of your sister?"_

Toby didn't answer to that question. Nothing else mattered to him.

"_Your sister died not because of you…but because of the Black Rose Witch."_ this time, Toby's attention was caught by the words. "_You're dead, but there's a way to avenge your sister's death. The Black Rose Witch, Akiza must pay. She's a Signers and I can help you get that revenge, for you are destined to join the Dark Signers and destroy her."_

"_Who are you?"_ Toby asked.

"_I am Ccoshobar, and I have chosen you to be my Dark Signer. Do you accept my gift of life, so you can get your revenge on Akiza?_" a path of darkness appeared at Toby's left. "_Or do you prefer to move on into the afterlife?"_ with that, a path of light appeared at Toby's left.

**(A.N.: I don't own the ****Earthbound Immortall Ccoshobar****. All the Earthbound Immortals on this fict are owned by ****Raphtil**** save for Razca. They are all on Deviantart. Just search for Ccoshobar, the dog Immortal.)**

Toby remembered all the good times he had with Misty. If he choose the afterlife, he would be with her, again. But would that be enough for him? He had screwed up when he didn't oppose to Misty going with him to the pier. He owned her. So, Toby chose the path of Ccoshobar.

Toby, who was still in the hospital, reopened his eyes. The Mark of the Dog was now carved in his arm.


	4. Devack and Riki

**Signer or Dark Signer?**

**Set in different episodes. What if some of the Signers and Dark Signers were different? What if a single change in a detail could change the destiny of some individuals?**

UnderlinedCards' names

**Bold** Author Notes

(in brackets) Life, ATK or DEF points

_Italic _thoughts

_Italic and centered_ transitions

**A single change in an event or scene can change the entire Universe. Here's the first change: What if Devack had a visit before he became a Dark Signer?**

**Chapter 4: Devack and Riki**

Neo Domino City, 2 years before the events of Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's:

A plane was descending upon Neo Domino City's airport. Inside it there was a young 13-year-old Spanish boy named Riki. His air was dark blue and he was pale and skinny. His eyes were red-orange, just like his late mother's. Riki's parents had died in a car accident, but his adventure with his friends Yohei, Moira, Lincetto and Gisaku granted him the wish of having his parents back.

Today, Riki was travelling to Neo Domino city to visit his uncle Devack. Riki remembered his folks been unpleased with the idea of Riki going alone to such a distant place. But Devack assured him that would be no trouble.

_"Maybe next time, uncle Devack can visit us in Seville. I'm sure he'll love Yohei's cuisine._" the boy remembered his adventure with Yohei, Moira, Gisaku and Lincetto against Gorkan, which had been the best things that ever happened to him. Little did he knew soon enough, his friends, his family and his life would be taken away from him.

**(A.N.: Lyokosamurai asked me to put his favorite character from the movie **_**Gisaku**_**, called Riki in my story. Mind you that I DON'T OWN Riki. He's just a '**_**borrowed'**_** character from a movie. In this fict, Riki lives in the future and not in the year 2005)**

_Meanwhile, in the Satellite…_

Jack Atlas was never the hug and smile type of friend. But he was a true friend. However, he always protected his mates, for they were like his brothers, ever since they met in Martha's orphanage. But the friendship he had with Crow Hogan, Yusei Fudo and Kalin Kessler during their days as the Enforcers was long gone.

Ever since Crow Hogan was sent to the Facility, everything went wrong. They never saw Crow again. Kalin decided to lay low for a while and disappeared one year ago. Last time Jack heard about him, Kalin claimed he need to find something worth living for, since the Enforcers were done. And Yusei had a fall out with Jack. But today, Rally had convinced Jack to go see Yusei's newly built Duel Runner. Jack was now on the way there, through a desert street of the Satellite:

"Quite a site, wouldn't you say Mr. Atlas?" a sneaky voice said. Jack looked around searching for its owner.

"Who's there?" the blond Australian accented man shouted.

"Up here." Jack looked up and saw a short man with clown features wearing a dark-red jacket, on the top of a three stories building.

"Who are you?" Jack asked.

"Oh, silly me! Forgot my manners. My name is Lazar and I work for the head of Sector Security, Roman Goodwin. He has sent me here to send you and your friend Yusei Fudo an invitation." Lazar spoke.

"Invitation?"

"You and Mr. Fudo have potential. Too bad you're both stuck in this pit, unable to prove the world your strength. But Mr. Goodwin is ready to give you two a chance. You and Mr. Fudo would become champions in Neo Domino City, respected citizen's with fame in fortune all around you. Tonight at midnight, the sewer that dispatches the garbage from Neo Domino City to the Satellite will be deactivated for one hour. All you have to do to get the lives Mr. Goodwin as promised you is to go on his Duel Runner to get to Neo Domino City. But for that, both of you have to come." Lazar spoke. Jack quirked a suspicious eyebrow. That was no doubt a trick for Sector Security to get their hands on Yusei's Duel Runner.

"Yeah right, and I got my accent in a fortune cookie." Jack replied with a ton of sarcasm. "This is just a cheap trick so you can take Yusei's Duel Runner. We all know Neo Domino city doesn't like Satellites who duel."

"I assure you it is not a trick. In fact, there's more than a better life awaiting you on the other side of the sea. Have you ever wondered why you and Mr. Fudo have those birthmarks on your arms?" Lazar asked. Jack was taken aback; he never though anyone besides him and Yusei would know about their birthmarks. But Lazar didn't stop there. "And even if that doesn't convince you, let me tell you that Yusei's friends, Rally, Blitz, Tank and Nervin have been taken to Mr. Goodwin's _care_. In fact, your friend Mr. Fudo is turning the sewers of the Satellite upside down to find them. If you want to see them again, you better tell Mr. Fudo what I just told you. Once you get to Neo Domino City by the garbage pipe, our two best agents will be there to duel you. If you manage to defeat them, new instructions will be given to you, afterwards." with that Lazard disappeared.

"Hey, get back here you clown wannabe!" Jack shouted, but Lazar was nowhere to be found. "I gotta warn Yusei!"

_Meanwhile, in Neo Domino City…_

"Nice place you got here, uncle." Riki said, though he only said that to not offend his uncle. Devack lived in a humble house, above his work office: a bodyshop for Duel Runners.

"You like it? It's like any other job in this city: all related to the new way of gaming." Devack said, smiling. Riki looked out of the window, seeing two duelists engaged in a Turbo Duel.

"_Card games on motorcycles? Great, what's next? Card games in space?_" Riki thought rolling his eyes.

"Is everything in this city dictated by card games?" Riki asked. Devack frowned.

"Uh…well…there's…" Devack stood like that for a few minutes, before giving up. "Yes, apparently it is. Oh, and speaking of which."

Devack opened a drawer and took a small object from it. It was a Starter Deck with a gift-ribbon wrapped around it.

"Here, happy birthday." Devack said, giving the deck to Riki.

_At night…_

The two Security Duel Runners stopped when their owner's LP hit 0. Yusei, on his Duel Runner and Jack, on the side car of the Duel Runner (much to his displeasure) had a tag-team duel with them and won. Yusei turned to Jack.

"So what happens now, Jack?"

"I don't know. That clown Lazar said next we would be told what to do." Jack informed.

"And indeed you will." a sneaky voice said, about two stories above them. Both duelists looked up to see Lazard standing at the top a building.

"It's that creep Lazar!" Jack shouted.

"What have you done to my friends?" Yusei demanded.

"Your friends are fine, Mr. Fudo. If you want to see them, you and Mr. Atlas will have to duel, right here right now." Lazar said.

"What? Why?" Yusei asked.

"To make sure you and Mr. Atlas are the ones we need. And, I expect you to summon both your Synchro Dragons." Lazard said. Jack got out of the sidecar and readied his Duel Disk.

"You know Yusei, I've been looking forward for this duel, anyway." Jack grinned. Yusei sighed and dismounted his ride.

"Ok, fine. We duel."

Lazar smirked. It was long before both summoned their ace monsters: Stardust Dragon and Red Dragon Archfiend. When the two dragons engaged in a battle, Yusei's and Jack's right arms throbbed and their birthmarks began to glow. Both duelists groaned in pain.

"What's happening?" they both thought. Right then, crimson light appeared. The light gained a new form until it was a mighty giant dragon.

"_We were right. These two are Signers."_ Lazard thought, watching the duel.

The Crimson Dragon unleashed a blood-curdling howl which called the attention of two people nearby.

"What was that?" Riki asked. He and Devack were returning the the uncle's house, when Riki heard a strange but sonorous howl.

"I don't…" Devack said but stopped talking when he and Riki turned around the corner of an abandoned building. There they could see a giant dragon made out of fire. The earth began to shake do to the presence of the Crimson Dragon. In fact, the abandoned building could not hold the shaking and began to collapse over the two unaware people. Only when Riki looked up he could see their imminent deaths. That of course went unnoticed to Yusei, Jack and Lazar.

"That's enough." Lazar said. "We already got the proofs"

"Proofs of what?" Jack questioned, suspiciously.

"That you are the people we were looking for." Lazar snapped his fingers and a helicopter appeared. "You can take you Duel Runner in the cargo transport, Mr. Fudo. We're going to Mr. Goodwin's mansion."

"What are you up to, Lazar?" Yusei growled.

"Nothing. You two have passed the test, so now you'll get your answers and your friends." Lazar said, entering the chopper. Yusei and Jack looked at each other before following suit. Yusei moved his Duel Runner into the chopper and joined Jack and Lazar.

Soon enough, the three were all in Roman Goodwin's mansion. The two Signers followed Lazar into Roman's office. Lazar stood outside and closed the door.

"Your friends were never in danger, Yusei Fudo." a calming voice said. Yusei and Jack turned around and saw a tall man with blue eyes and long blond air: Roman Goodwin, the head of Sector Security.

"You're Goodwin, the chump behind all of this, aren't you?" Jack asked.

"Yes, you could say that. I'm sorry I had to _kidnap_ your friends. But I needed to make sure you were the Signers I was looking for." Roman explained.

"Signers?" Jack questioned.

"Look you better explain yourself! Where's Rally and the others?" Yusei demanded.

"Your friends are in the dining room. No harm has come to them. The only way to see if you were Signers was to put you both in a stress situation when you would have to duel with every bit of your determination. And it worked." Roman said. This confused and aggravated the two Satellites even more, especially Jack.

"Ok, that's it! What's this rubbish, Goodwin?" instead of answering, Roman showed them his left forearm with his own birthmark: The Dragon's Head. Both and Jack and Yusei were stunned by this, so Roman spoke:

"You want' to know the truth? Very well, but you won't exit this office as the same people you were when you walked in. Everything began 5000 years ago…"

_Meanwhile, with Riki…_

"Where am I?" Riki asked. There was nothing around him but an ending darkness. "Am I dead?"

"_Yes, you are dead and so is your uncle. But that doesn't mean it is all over for you, Riki."_ a voice whispered in the darkness like an echo. The voice sounded like it came from everywhere.

"What? Who are you?" Riki looked around. "Let me guess, you're the Devil and you're here to escort me to Hell, right?"

"_No, I'm not the Devil. I'm real. I am Cuauhcoatl. I have been setting my eye on you ever since your life in the living world ended._" the voice whispered.

"I'm really…dead." Riki said in shock.

"_Yes, but I'm willing to give you a choice. Your life as the Riki everybody knew is over. But I can give you a new life, the life of a Dark Signer. My Dark Signer."_ Cuauhcoatl said.

"A Dark Signer?" Riki asked.

"_Yes, I can give you a new life of power. Power to get back at the man who ruined your previous life._" the Earthbound Immortal said.

"Who are you talking about? What man?" Riki asked.

"_Watch the past."_ Cuauhcoatl whispered and the darkness changed. Riki was back at the scene of his death. But this time, while his past self was elsewhere, he was watching a duel between two grownups. One had spiked black hair with yellow strands. The other was blond and had an Australian accent. Both had two Synchro Dragons on the field. But the strangest thing was that both duelists had red glowing marks on their right arms, which was causing them pain.

"What are you trying to show me?" Riki asked but the voice did not answered. The black haired young man moaned:

"Urrghh…Jack, we have to stop this."

"No way, Yusei. Red Dragon Archfiend…" the blond replied.

"But something dangerous might happen!" the black haired warned, but his opponent ignored him:

"Attack!" and so as the two dragons battled, the Crimson Dragon appeared and the earthquake that killed two people began. The vision ended and Riki was back into the Darkness.

"_Now you see, Riki? The blond man, Jack Atlas, persisted in that duel. The clash of the two Signer Dragons caused the Crimson Dragon to appear and its presence put your life to an end."_ Cuauhcoatl said, smoothly. "_I'm giving you a choice: you can either leave it all behind and move on to the afterlife."_ a path of light appeared at Riki's left. "_or you can follow my path and become a Dark Signer, to get your revenge on the Signer Jack Atlas._"

"Revenge? No, I'm not going to kill anybody." the boy said.

"_Are you certain? Just think about you dead uncle Devack. Don't you want to get back at the person who killed him? What about your friends and family back at your home land? No matter what paths you chose, you will never see them again. Don't you want a new chance of life, so you can get your pay back from the Signer who took all of that away from you?"_

Riki listened to the voice. He spent minutes there, looking down in the darkness. At last, the Spanish boy made up his mind and chose the path of Cuauhcoatl.

_Meanwhile, in Roman's office…_

Roman Goodwin finished telling his story. He told everything since the Ancient Battle against the Army of Shadows, including the fact that he and his brother worked to Dr. Fudo and it was his brother Rex who made the original Ener-D reactor to go haywire. Yusei had been most interested to know Roman meet his father.

"OK…you really need to cut down on the drinking, Goodwin." Jack said.

"I wish this was all alcohol induced hallucination. But it's not, Jack Atlas, I'm quite sober and sane." Roman said, not offended by Jack's remark. "But deep down, you know I'm telling the truth. I know that whenever you think about your birthmarks, your dragons came into your minds. That's because those marks represent your bonds to your dragons."

Yusei took a moment to look at his birthmark, before looking at Jack. As crazy as that sounded, Roman spoke the truth about that.

"Assuming you're right and that in 2 years, these Dark Signers will appear, what do you want from us?" Yusei asked.

"In order to find the two other Signers, I have released to the public the four cards Dr. Fudo entrusted me with. Two of them have returned." Roman made a gesture with his head, indicating Jack's and Yusei's monsters. "The other two will eventually show up. But I trust destiny is working on our side, so the Signers will all come together eventually. If you participate in tournaments, destiny will make the other Signer appear before you eventually." Roman made a paused before continuing.

"That is why I'm offering you a chance to live here in Neo Domino City. Even if you don't believe in me, you can still accept my offer. You will be seen as Neo Domino's genuine sons. No one will know about your origins and you'll become the Riding Duel Stars of this city." Roman finished. Jack was the first to answer:

"Look, I don't really believe in any of that. But I would be an idiot if I ever refused a chance to become the King of Turbo Duels. So I'm in."

"And I'm too. But on one condition: if I'm leaving the Satellite, then my friends will be coming with me." Yusei demanded.

"As you wish, Yusei. I would be surprised if you didn't ask me that." Roman said. Then, a young blue-haired woman entered the office. Behind her was Rally, Nervin, Tank and Blitz.

"Hey, Yusei!" they said, glad to see their friend.

"Guys!" Yusei smiled for the first time he had entered that office.

"You wanted to see me, Director Goodwin?" she asked.

"Yes, Miss Mina. Show our six guests the apartments I have requested for them, at the Tops. And have Mr. Fudo's Duel Runner taken to there, too." Roman instructed. Mina bowed and asked Yusei and Jack to follow her. When everybody else exited the office, Roman sighed and looked at his Mark of the Dragon. Then he took out his deck and looked at his Synchro Dragon: Life Stream Dragon.

"_And so it begins, my friend_." the Duel Spirit of Roman's ace said.

_In the Dark Signer's Lair…_

"Where am I now?" Riki asked, waking up now. "Was all of that a dream?"

But soon he noticed he wasn't on his uncle's house nor on his house back at Spain. It was a dark room, with a bed and an closet with a mirror. The only source of light was coming from the candles in a candlestick. Riki felt a strange weight in his right arm. It was a plastic and metal object he only recently learnt what it was.

"What is this Duel Disk thing doing on my arm?" he asked, but that wasn't the only thing out of place. His clothes were now black with red stripes and his left arm had a strange purple mark, shaped like a snake:

"What's with this clothes and this mark on my arm?" Riki, now freaking out, turned around taking a glance at the mirror. He nearly screamed. His face had now red line-tattoos but wasn't what scared him most:

"My…my eyes! They're…black!" Riki shrieked.

**(A.N.: I have Riki as a Dark Signer on Deviantart. Just go to my Profile to find the link, or search in my gallery. My Deviantart name is orichalcosdark.)**

The door opened and Riki lost his breath. A boy about his age, maybe a bit older, entered. He had brown hair and the same style of clothes as Riki, only his lines were orange. Like Riki, his eyes were black.

"Hello, Riki! Welcome aboard." he smiled welcomingly. "My name is Toby."

"I'm Riki…where is this place?" Riki asked.

"It's our hiding place. The lair of the Dark Signers." Toby said.

"Dark Signers? … So, that was not a dream." Riki whispered.

"No, it wasn't. You were chosen, just like I and the others were, by the Immortals. Chosen to take down the Signers of the Crimson Dragon, for they have ruined your previous life, just like they did to mine." Toby said bitterly, on the verge to rage. Then his expression calmed down. "Let me see your deck."

Toby wasn't making a demand, but his voice held a tone of command. Nonetheless, Riki gave him the cards he had on his Duel Disk. Toby shuffled the deck, seeing every card. When he was done, he returned the deck to Riki.

"A Venom-Archetype deck, hu? Well, I still have 2 years to teach you how to master it. But first, come with me." Toby asked.

"To where?" Riki asked.

"To meet the rest of the Dark Signers: Crow and our leader Rex." Toby said.

**Here it is the fourth Dark Signer. But this chapter was a spoiler. Now everybody knows who the next and last Dark Signer is. Toby spoiled everything. In the future, I'll change the order of the chapter, according to the timeline. Wait for the next chapter: Kalin and Crow. Read and review, please!**


	5. Carly and Leo

**Signer or Dark Signer?**

**Set in different episodes. What if some of the Signers and Dark Signers were different? What if a single change in a detail could change the destiny of some individuals?**

Underlined_ – _Cards' names

**Bold** – Author Notes

(in brackets) – Life, ATK or DEF points

_Italic _– thoughts

_Italic and centered_ - transitions

**A single change in an event or scene can change the entire Universe. Here's the first change: What if Leo covered up for Carly?**

**Chapter 5: Carly and Leo**

Episode 37:

Leo was lying in the bed, while Luna watched through the wall of glass.

"Leo." – she sighed to her unconscious brother. Then the door opened and Akiza entered the room.

"Your brother is going to be fine." – she said, calmly.

"What do you people want?" – Luna asked.

"Sayer thought Leo might have the powers of a Psychic duelist, so he wanted to test him out."

"Leo doesn't have Psychic anything. I'm the one with crazy powers. Let Leo go." – she pleaded.

"You don't have to be scared of us Luna. The Movement is here to help." – Akiza said. Right then, the door reopened and a random man entered.

"Miss Akiza, Master Sayer wants to talk to you. And he requested you take Luna with you." – the subordinate said.

"Fine." – Akiza turned to Luna. – "Come on Luna, we have to go."

"No way. What about Leo?" – Luna said.

"Don't worry about him. I promise you, he will be fine." – Akiza said, giving Luna her hand. Luna didn't know if she should let Leo by himself. But Akiza was a Signer, and if she was chosen by the Crimson Dragon, she had to be a good person. Luna accepted and exited the room, giving one last look at Leo. If she had stood 5 more seconds, she would have noticed Leo began to stir and woke up.

"What…Luna?" – Leo asked looking for his sister. – "I've gotta find Luna and take her out of this mental ward."

Leo got up and exited the room, silently sneaking away. The boy walked through the walls, paying attention to any sound that could indicate someone was coming. Leo froze when another boy appeared around a corner. The stranger hadn't made a sound, which was why Leo didn't know he was coming. He was brunette and his hairstyle was similar to Akiza's. He was wearing a uniform of the Duel Academy of New Domino City. His eyes were blue and he was slightly taller than Leo.

"_He must be one of those Psycho duelists. I better make an excuse quick!"_ – Leo thought desperately. He stammered – "Uh…hello…I'm one of the rookies and…"

"I know you're not a Psychic duelist, Leo." – the older boy said calmly.

"I'm…wait, how do you know my name?" – the twin asked.

"My name is Toby and don't worry, I'm not with this group of monsters." – the brunette answered calmly, though he said the last word with an obvious hint of hatred.

"What? Monsters? If you're not from this Psycho movement, then why are you here?" – Leo asked confused. He didn't specifically like Sayer, but Akiza was a Signer. That made her a superhero, not a monster.

"I'm here for some pay back. This group of murderers caused my sister Misty's death." – Toby whispered emotionless, like they were talking about the weather. – "You should get your sister and leave this place ASAP."

"Uh…Thanks for the advice." – Leo thanked, feeling confused about Toby. The brunette went on his way.

"Goodbye and see ya around."

"That was weird." – Leo commented, continuing his way. He then heard a man's voice. It was Sayer's! But the voice didn't seem to be getting any closer. Leo took a sneak peak around a corner and saw Sayer talking to Akiza, at the entrance of an elevator.

"You go on, Akiza. I have to go take care of a little rodent problem." – Sayer said, smirking. He began to walk to where Leo was. The boy saw this and ran away, before the Psychic duelist saw him.

"_Gotta get outta here! Gotta get outta here! Gotta get outta here!...Where are you Luna?"_ – Leo thought desperately. He stopped for a moment, when he heard a female voice soft cry in room.

"Is that Luna?" – Leo wondered aloud. He opened the door and bit looked at the figure inside. – "Luna?"

The girl, or rather, woman jumped out of her skin. She had dark green long hair, was thin and had a pair of big round glasses.

"Wait…I'm not spying…I can explain!" – the young woman nearly screamed.

"It's alright! Listen, Sayer is coming. You have to get out of here!" – Leo warned. The girl shrieked, before gathering a bunch of papers and bursting out of the room.

"Thanks a lot!" – she thanked, taking off. Leo stood a second watching the leaving woman.

"Now that's _really_ weird." – Leo mentioned. However he would soon find out it would have been wiser if he had taken off with her.

"Well, what you know. The little mouse is a familiar face." – a snide voice, full of disdain spoke behind Leo. The boy turned around and saw Sayer. The man grabbed Leo by his wrist in a strong grip.

"Let go of me you freak!" – Leo protested, but Sayer ignored. The red-head took a glance at opened door of his office and the pile of books on the floor, with in.

"So you've been spying, hu?" – Sayer pushed Leo in the office and locked the door. Leo was about to say 'NO', but then he thought:

"_Hold on. If I tell him it was that girl, he will send his goons after her. If I'm supposed to be a Signer, I must be a hero and protect the others. I must be brave."_

"Yeah, that was me! So, what about it?" – Leo said challenging.

"Now, I can't let you leave, you know too much. In normal conditions, I would use my sense of fair-play and give you a chance: we duel." – Sayer smirked even more. – "Though, since I already beaten you, it won't make any difference. So good riddance, little mouse."

Sayer drew a Hinotama card from his deck and activated it. A fire ball blew the floor beneath Leo and the boy was tossed over the window. Time seemed to have been put in slow-motion for Leo. He began to see his live in front of his eyes.

"_This can't be happening…Luna, help me."_ – Leo pleaded, falling into his untimely death. Leo crashed into the ground, making a crater beneath his death body. His cards fell over his body. Suddenly, those same cards began to change, turning darker. Then, an earthquake struck New Domino city.

"What's going on?" – Sayer asked, abruptly. Just then, a geoglyph of purple fire appeared, surrounding the Arcadia Movement HQ. The geoglyph was shaped like a bird with a long, twisted neck and an even longer beak: the Crest of the Heron. Leo opened his eyes and saw nothing but darkness around him. He couldn't even see his own hands or torso or any other part of his body.

"_Leo…"_ – spoke a voice with no name.

"Who said that? Who are you?" – Leo asked. – "Are you the Grim Reaper?"

"_I am Huacachina Kon and I want to offer you a new life._" – the voice said.

"A new life? Hold on…does that means … I'm dead?" – Leo asked, hesitantly. – "That maniac Sayer really killed me?"

"_Yes. But I can give you a new life. A new, better, powerful life."_ – Huacachina Kon offered. – "_I can give you a chance to get revenge on the man who killed you."_

"I don't care about him. I just want to protect my sister from him!" – Leo groaned.

"_You can use my gift of life to protect your sister. You will have to make a hard decision on how to protect her, but there's a chance. Do you accept it?"_

"Yeah…I accept." – Leo answered.

Then, the earthquake stopped, but the fire didn't disappear. One thing was missing: Leo's body.

**You know, I always found completely unfair that Leo was made a Signer only at the very end of the series so I love to make him a Dark Signer when I can. Just check out my other fict 'What if Leo didn't have to win?' where he's turned into a Dark Signer and duels his sister.**


	6. Triple Shadow Duel: Leo VS Sayer

**Signer or Dark Signer?**

**Set in different episodes. What if some of the Signers and Dark Signers were different? What if a single change in a detail could change the destiny of some individuals?**

UnderlinedCards' names

**Bold** Author Notes

(in brackets) Life, ATK or DEF points

_Italic _thoughts

_Italic and centered_ transitions

**Chapter 6: Triple Shadow Duel: Leo VS Sayer**

Episode 37 (continuation of the last chapter):

Then, the earthquake stopped, but the fire didn't disappear. One thing was missing: Leo's body.

"Get everyone evacuate! But leave our guests where they are." Sayer said on the phone.

"You should be more concerned about you leaving this place, Sayer." a dispassionate voice whispered. Sayer looked at the door; someone had just walked him.

"I must be seeing things." Sayer said to himself. At the door, a Leo with empty eyes was standing. "OK, you're having a nervous breakdown, it's the stress of your job, you just need some vacation. I hope."

"Enough chit-chat. I'm not some stress-induced hallucination. I'm real and this is the proof." Leo showed him his right arm. A purple glowing mark equal to the geoglyph outside was carved in his skin. "Apparently, I can't be a Signer. However, destiny doesn't want me as a simple sidekick."

A purple light engulfed the boy. When the light faded, Leo had suffered a total transformation. His blue suit was now a dark version of his daily clothes, whit white strips. Beneath his right eye, he had a white tattoo shaped like a thunder. The white in the boy's eyes was black. Leo gave Sayer a malefic smirk.

**(A.N.: I have Leo's Dark Signer look on Deviantart.**** Just go to my Profile to find the link, or search in my gallery. My Deviantart name is orichalcosdark.**

**However I DON'T own his Earthbound Huacachina Kon. I saw on Deviantart drawing of all the Immortals, even those who didn't appear in the show. All credit of the Leo's Earthbound goes to ****Raphtil****. Just go to Deviantart and search for ****Huacachina Kon****.)**

"You're Dark Signer?" Sayer asked, surprised.

"Correction: I'm a Dark Signer who has come here to send you to the afterlife. And since we're inside my crest, we can't leave until the duel is over." Leo informed, eagerly activating his new Duel Disk.

"Ok, fine. The sooner I defeat you, the sooner I get out of here." Sayer complied, activating his own duel disk. "Even though you are a Dark Signer, I easily beat you once. It won't be difficult to do it again."

"_You're right. It won't be difficult; it'll be impossible._" Leo thought, already knowing the outcome of this duel.

"I begin. I play my Trap Booster. With this card, I can discard one card to play a Trap right away. So I'll play my Urgent Tuning trap. Now I…" Sayer's speech was cut short by Leo.

"Yeah, I know how the card works. I've seen Yusei playing that one hundreds of times. Just hurry up."

"As you which. Now I send my Storm Caller (lv.6) and my Krebons (lv. 2) to Synchro Summon Thought Ruler Archfiend (lv.8)." Sayer's ace appeared, growling at Leo.

"_Looks like he wasn't kidding when he said he was in a hurry. Well, neither am I."_ Leo thought to himself.

(Thought Ruler Archfiend ATK: 2700 / DEF: 2300)

"As much as I would love to blast you. I'm not permitted to attack yet. However, I can play this: Meteor of Destruction!" Sayer shouted, sounding triumph. His Spell card fired a meteor at the Dark Signer. Leo felt uncomfortable, but no pain like when he first dueled Sayer.

(Leo LP: 4000 - 1000 = 3000)

"I think that's enough for now. I end my turn." Sayer announced. Leo did the last thing someone would expect him to do: he laughed.

"I missed the joke." Sayer muttered, annoyed.

"You are the joke. You think that firework hurt? I didn't feel a thing. I play my Morphtronic Industry Field Spell." Leo said. A factory of what appeared to be Morphtronic Tech appeared. "With this on the field, each time a Morphtronic monster switches its Battle Position, my Morphtronics get a 300 points boost. Next I play my Field Barrier, just to make sure my Field Spell gets to stick around. Meet my Morphtronic Gauntlet, in DEF mode."

Leo's summoned monster was a gauntlet with sharpen claws and a long blade on the front.

(Morphtronic Gauntlet ATK: 200 / DEF: 900)

"When this monster is in DEF mode, I can summon another Morphtronic. And I choose my good Morphtronic Monster Truck, also in DEF mode. Then I place one card face down. You're up." Leo said. Morphtronic Monster Truck was a toy monster truck.

(Morphtronic Monster Truck ATK: 1500 / DEF: 0)

"Aren't you a little too old to play with a toy like that." Sayer disdained the Monster Truck.

"Just go." Leo replied.

"_If he thinks I won't attack him now, he better think again. That face down is no doubt a Trap._" Sayer looked at Leo's face down. Then he gazed at his own Synchro Monster. "_But, if I activate my __Thought Ruler Archfiend__ Special Ability, I can negate the activation of that Trap. Plus, even with monster in DEF mode, if I use this card on my hand, he will still lose points."_

"Looks like you learn nothing from our last Duel, twerp. I play my Psychic Ruling Spell Card. By discarding one card from my hand, for the next two turns when my Thought Ruler Archfiend engages in a battle with a monster in DEF mode, the duelist who owns the weaker monster takes damage equal to the difference." Sayer grinned. "And don't forget if you intend to affect my monster with that face down, forget it. I can just sacrifice 1000 LP so my monster destroys any Spell or Trap that targets my Psychic monsters, specifically."

Leo showed no emotion hearing that.

"_After this attack, he'll only have 300 LP Left. Next turn, he's history."_ Sayer thought before declaring an attack. "Now, my Thought Ruler Archfiend, attack his Morphtronic Monster Truck."

The giant monster began to move towards the smaller one, furiously.

"The scare you had when you saw me walking through that door must have caused you brain damage." Leo smirked. "I activate my Zero Gravity Trap Card. Since this card affects _all_ monsters on the field and not just your own, you can't use your ugly fiend to cancel it."

Thought Ruler Archfiend stopped and changed into DEF while Leo's monster changed into ATK.

"I end my turn." Sayer announced clenched his fists in fury. Leo smirk grew wider.

"Oh, I just remembered one thing. Since 3 monsters just changed their Battle Position, my Morphtronic Industry activates, giving my monsters a 900 ATK boost."

(Morphtronic Gauntlet ATK: 200 + 900 = 1100 / DEF: 900)

(Morphtronic Monster Truck ATK: 1500 + 900 = 2400 / DEF: 0)

"I discard one card to activate my No Sacrifice, No Victory Spell. Once per turn, we can discard one card from our hands to get another one from our decks, just so long the two cards share a word of their names." Leo instructed. "Watch this. I send Earthbound Revival from my hand to the Graveyard. Now I can get from my deck a card with the word _**Earthbound**_ or _**Revival**_ on its name. And I assure this will be the last card you'll ever see."

Leo laughed which sent a chill up Sayer's spine.

"_Could he be talking about his new ace?"_ Sayer wondered in his inner thoughts.

"But I won't play it right away. First, I'll use the bonus I got from my field Spell. Go, Morphtronic Monster Truck, destroy his monster." Leo's Monster Truck attacked Thought Ruler Archfiend, destroying Sayer's ace. "And since your Psychic Ruling is still in play, you take damage equal to the difference. Funny your own card is been used against you, hu?"

(Sayer LP: 4000 - (2400 - 2300) = 3900)

"Your turn Morphtronic Gauntlet, attack him directly!" Leo enjoyed Sayer's scream when the gauntlet hit him in the gut.

(Sayer LP: 3900 - 1100 = 2800)

"I place one last card face down and end my turn." Leo said. "Your move, Sayer."

Sayer stood up uneasily. That attack had really knocked him down.

"_Now not only I'm wide open, but he has two monsters and something else coming up."_ Sayer thought. "_I have to strength my Defenses. But I also have to take down the card he just got before he uses it. And I think I know how._"

"First, I discard Rampage Destruction to get Card Destruction from my deck. And I'll use it right now, which means our hands are all going to the graveyard and he have to draw new cards." Sayer smirked. "Now you're going to have to discard your entire hand. But I'm afraid I'm not done yet. Next I play my Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy your face down and my Premature Burial and which allows me to bring back a monster by sacrificing 800 LP. So say hello to my Thought Ruler Archfiend." while Leo's face down card was vanquished, Sayer's best monster returned from the grave and growled.

(Sayer LP: 2800 - 800 = 2000)

(Thought Ruler Archfiend ATK: 2700 / DEF: 2300)

"Now attack his Morphtronic Monster Truck!" This time, Leo's Monster truck was destroyed and his Life points hit.

(Leo LP: 3000 - (2700 - 2400) = 2700)

"I end my turn. Looks like things aren't going so bright now, hu? You just lost your best monster and the surprise card you had in store for me." Sayer mocked. Leo just laughed.

"You're a moron, Sayer. And let me show you why." Leo took a few cards from his Graveyard and showed them to Sayer. "Look at them. These were the cards I discarded thanks to your Card Destruction."

Sayer looked at the cards and noticed something. There was no card that seemed powerful among them!

"You see, I knew you would try to make me get rid of my ace, so I tricked you. When I discarded Earthbound Revival the card I added to my hand was my Earthbound Roar. My Earthbound monster is still in my deck."

Sayer was fuming with anger. Leo watched gleeful until he began his move.

"First let me thank you for that Card Destruction maneuver. It got me the card I wanted. First, since you had me drop my whole previous hand, I can get a card whose name shares a word with one of those cards. I sent Earthbound Roar to my Graveyard, so I guess I'll add to my new hand a card with the word _**Earthbound**_." Leo grinned.

"_Now, I'm back where I started. Did he got his Earthbound monster or is he bluffing again?"_ Sayer muttered in his mind.

"_That's it Sayer. Wonder about the card I have now. It will be the last monster you will ever see."_ Leo said in his own mind looking at the Earthbound Immortal monster he had just got.

"Next, I summon my Dark-Tuner monster Dark Megatronic (lv.9) which thanks to its Special Ability, I can summon it without a sacrifice."

"A Dark-Tuner?" Sayer asked, fearing what was coming.

"That's right. Now I tune my level 2 Morphtronic Gauntlet with my level 9 Dark Megatronic." The Dark-Tuner monster disappeared leaving behind his level-stars, which sunk into Morphtronic Gauntlet. Leo began to chant "When the shadows are devoured by even darker shadows, the curtains pull back to reveal... a world without light! I Dark-Synchro Summon JIGSAW Dragon!"

The new monster was a robotic Dragon similar to Power Tool, though this one seemed to have come out of a JIGSAW movie. The metal covering his body was in various shades of black with red-blood stains. The spikes on his back and neck and the tip of his tail had mechanical bloodstained blades. Unlike Power Tool, this mechanical dragon had no tool for hands.

(JIGSAW Dragon (lv. -7) ATK: 2300 / DEF: 2500)

"And now for its Special Ability. Once per turn, I equip him with one random level 6 or below Morphtronic monster from my Graveyard. That way, the monsters ATK or DEF points are transferred to my dragon. And looks like the winner is Morphtronic Monster Truck!"

(Morphtronic Monster Truck ATK: 1500 / DEF: 0)

(JIGSAW Dragon ATK: 2300 + 1500 = 3800 / DEF: 2500 + 0 = 2500)

"3800 ATK points!" Sayer exclaimed.

"Don't worry. My monster has a disadvantage. He can't inflict Battle or Direct Damage. You should be glad that you will last another turn." Leo smirked. "Pity I can say the same about your Thought Ruler Archfiend. Show him who's boss, JIGSAW Dragon!"

The mechanical dragon flew to the Psychic and slashed it with the equipped Morphtronic Gauntlet. Sayer's ace was, once more, destroyed.

"Now you have one turn left. You better make it count." Leo said dispassionately.

"You bet I will." Sayer said. He drew a card. "I'll use the power of you No Sacrifice, No Victory to trade my Psychic Grave Keeping for my Psychic Revenge. I can use my Spell Card Psychic Revenge to destroy a monster that destroyed a Psychic monster last turn."

Leo didn't seem concerned about that.

"So say good bye to your horror movie dragon." Sayer taunted as JIGSAW Dragon disappeared. "Next, I summon my Psychic Snail, but lucky for you I can't attack you this turn, due to my Psychic Revenge. Your move."

Leo didn't move just yet. He chuckled and his chuckles soon turned into mad laughs.

"Will you stop laughing?" Sayer said, annoyed.

"I know for you it must be difficult to accept you've lost. I told you only had one more turn. And you failed. One way ticket to the Netherworld coming up!" Leo announced, drawing.

"You're bluffing." Sayer accused.

"Oh, am I? Remember when I Dark-Synchro summoned, I used two monsters. I could have just sacrificed them to summon my most powerful monster and finish this duel back then." Leo hissed. Sayer was having cold sweat.

"But…But you never had your ace in your hand." the Psychic duelist retorted, his voice cracking slightly.

"The 2nd time I got a card with the word _**Earthbound**_ on its name I wasn't bluffing. I told you that was your last move!" Leo shouted, his eyes wide open. "I activate my Synchro Tune Revive. Since a Synchro or a Dark-Synchro was just destroyed last turn, I can Special Summon the monsters I used to create it."

Right then, Morphtronic Gauntlet and Dark Megatronic appeared on the field.

"Meet the last card you'll ever see. After 5000 years, the Immortals will rise again and feed off the spirits of New Domino city!" Leo's eyes and face-mark glowed with a purple light like his Mark of the Heron. Leo's two monsters turned into 2 orbs of colorful light and flew high above them, merging into one. This new ball of light went outside, passing through the cracked window. "By the power of the Dark Signers, I summon Earthbound Immortal Huacachina Kon!"

The light exploded and turned into a beating heart made of stone. The wind blew stronger and the waves roared like the sea itself was angry. The heart began to absorb the darkness around and the spirits of which seemed to be coming from the air itself.

Huacachina Kon was a giant heron with white lines. Its black body glow with an aura colored like its lines, just like the other Immortals. Leo's monster chirped tremendously, even reaching the clouds in the sky with its beak.

(Earthbound Immortal Huacachina Kon ATK: 2700 / 2300)

"AH! AH! AH! Now Huacachina Kon, obliterate him and send him to the darkest corner of the Netherworld. Attack his LP directly!" Leo grunted and the giant heron leaned rapidly with its beak over the Psychic duelist. The Earthbound Immortal passed by Sayer's defense and hit the ground where he was, devastating an entire floor. Sayer didn't even have time to scream when he began to fall.

"Earthbound Immortal Huacachina Kon return to me!" Leo shouted raising his card. The Earthbound Immortal howled/chirped before returning to the card. In the Akiza VS Toby duel, Sayer past by them. Akiza looked at her supposed friend falling into his death.

"Sayer!" she screamed. The building began to crumble.

"Looks like we're going to have to finish this duel later." Toby said, upset. "Earthbound Immortal Ccoshobar, return to me!"

The giant black dog with orange stripes and markings outside barked and returned to the card. Toby made his exit.

_A while later…_

"Oh, man…what a headache." Leo moaned. His eyes were white again, though besides that his Dark Signer look wasn't gone. The boy was now at the top of the ruined building. "What am I doing here?"

Leo then recalled the duel and how his monster pushed Sayer to a deadly fall. Horror spread in his face.

"Oh, no! Did I just kill somebody?" he then took a general look at himself. "What's with this Duel Disk? And this mark on my arm? And this outfit?"

"Leo, this is your destiny." an echoing voice whispered. Leo knew that voice wasn't strange to him but he couldn't put his finger on it. A figure also dressed in black appeared: Toby.

"Is that you Toby?" Leo asked.

"Yes and just like you, I was chosen, 3 years ago, to be a Dark Signer." Toby said. Leo shook his head.

"Dark Signer? What's that?" Leo asked

"You're destined for greatness. You're destined to change this world. Our marks are the proofs." Toby showed his Mark of the Dog. "What you did to Sayer is what you're supposed to do to the rest of World, once you defeat your sister."

"But I only wanted to protect my sister from that creep. I didn't…" Leo then realized something. "Oh, no! Luna, where is…?"

"Don't worry. Your sister is fine. Jack Atlas and Yusei Fudo saved both her and Akiza." Toby said the older girl's name with distaste. "But don't forget that now you're a Dark Signer and Luna is your enemy."

"But…she's my sister! How can you…" Leo's outburst was cut off by Toby.

"I understand. So that's why you have to figure out something: how can you protect your sister and how can that benefit the Dark Signers?" Toby put a hand over his shoulder. Then, a chopper appeared and landed on the top of the building close by them.

"Where are we going?" Leo asked, as Toby motioned for the two of them to go.

"To our hide out. The home of the Dark Signers." Toby answered. Inside the chopper were two other Dark Signers. The one piloting the chopper was a young redhead man in his early twenties, whose clothes were black with dark green lines. The other was a boy around Toby's age with, dark-blue hair, orange eyes and red lined black clothes. The boy seemed grumpy, while the pilot seemed more cheerful. They both eyed Leo but only the redhead replied:

"Welcome aboard Leo! I'm Crow and this Mr. Sunshine" he pointed at the dark-blue haired boy. "is Riki."

**Sorry, but my imagination for duels is so dead that I copied the Leo VS Sayer duel from my other fict 'What if Leo didn't have to win?' But, here you have it. And Jack and Yusei saved Luna in the building instead of Bolt and Tanner, since Yusei was never in the facility, he never met them. Plus, I changed this chapter so that Leo and Luna had never met Yusei and didn't know what was a Signer.**


	7. Triple Shadow Duel: Toby VS Akiza

**Signer or Dark Signer?**

**Set in different episodes. What if some of the Signers and Dark Signers were different? What if a single change in a detail could change the destiny of some individuals?**

UnderlinedCards' names

**Bold** Author Notes

(in brackets) Life, ATK or DEF points

_Italic _thoughts

_Italic and centered_ transitions

**Chapter 7: Triple Shadow Duel: Toby VS Akiza**

Episode 37 (this happens at the same time as the previous chapter):

"Sayer? Sayer, where are you?" Akiza asked. There was nobody besides her in the building. Well, maybe not exactly.

"I'm sorry, but Sayer is too busy fighting for his worthless life." a young boy's voice said. Akiza turned around and saw Toby, the same boy who Leo encountered before.

"Who are you?" Akiza asked.

"I'm not surprised you don't recognize me. You, Black Rose, don't usually care about other than yourself, do you?" the boy said, hatefully. "But, if you need a name, mine is Toby."

"Look, I don't know why you're here but…" Akiza began but Toby cut her short.

"But I do. You see, 3 years ago, you did something to me that I really didn't appreciated. So, I'm here for some pay back" Toby said. "in a duel."

"Look, I don't know what you're blabbering about, but fine. Maybe a duel can put some sense into you." Akiza said, activating her duel disk.

"Good. It's the perfect time to test out my secret abilities. You see, you're not the only one hiding a secret. Don't let my size fool you for I am a Dark Signer!" Toby announced.

"You're a Dark Signer!" Akiza gasped. Toby suffered a similar transformation to Leo's. He now had a black long jacket, with orange stripes and orange face tattoos.

**(A.N.: I have a draw of Toby's Dark Signer look on Deviantart.**** Just go to my Profile to find the link, or search in my gallery. My Deviantart name is orichalcosdark.**

**Plus, ****Raphtil**** was the author who drew the OC Earthbound Immortal, which are also on Deviantart. Just search ****Raphtil Earthbound Immortal**** on Deviantart.)**

Outside the Arcadia building, a new geoglyph formed, in the shape of a dog.

"I'll start things off." Akiza said. "I play my Twilight Rose Knight. And thanks to his ability, I can bring out a lv.4 or lower Plant monster from my hand. And I choose my Lord Poison. Next, I tune my lv. 4 Lord Poison and my lv. 3 Twilight Rose Knight to a Synchro Summon! Say hello to Black Rose Dragon. I think that will do for now."

The rose like Dragon roared proudly at Toby. The Dark Signer was neither impressed nor intimidated, however.

(Black Rose Dragon ATK: 2400 / DEF: 1800)

"It figures you would summon your pet." Toby disdained. "I play my Pack's Territory Field Spell. Now if any of us happens to have a dog monster on the field, the opponent's monsters can't attack on the turn they were summoned. Plus, if a player summons a Dog monsters, they can Special Summon an additional Dog monster from their hand."

The field became a territory filled with pine trees and wolfs lurking in the shadows.

"And to make sure my Field Spell, sticks around, I play my Field Barrier. Next, I summon my Chain Dog in the DEF mode. Next I'll use my Pack's Territory power to bring my Flamvell Fire Dog, also in DEF mode. Your move, Black Rose." Toby said.

Chain Dog was an adorable dog wagging its tail, with golden chains wrapped around its body. Flamvell Fire Dog didn't look that harmless for a dog made of molten lava.

(Chain Dog ATK: 1600 / DEF: 1100)

(Flamvell Fire Dog ATK: 1900 / DEF: 200)

"You call those mangy mutts monsters?" Akiza taunted, looking at the two defensive canine creatures.

"You never heard that big things come in small packages?" Toby retorted. Akiza made her next move:

"I play my Thorn of Malice and Equip it to my dragon." thorns grew on the dragon's long neck, giving it a far more threatening appearance.

(Black Rose Dragon ATK: 2400 + 600 = 3000 / DEF: 1800)

"Not only my dragon gets a power bonus, but it whenever it attacks, the target is changed the attack and loses 600 ATK points. But don't worry, puppy monster won't be destroyed." Akiza said, triumphantly. "And the monster that will suffer my dragon's wrath will be your Flamvell Fire Dog."

Black Rose Dragon attacked Flamvell Fire Dog with tendrils of spiked thorns making the poor dog whine in pain. However the dog was not destroyed.

(Flamvell Fire Dog ATK: 1900 - 600 = 1300 / DEF: 200)

(Toby LP: 4000 - (3000 - 1300) = 2300)

"Next I place three face downs. It's your move, Dark Signer." Akiza finished. Toby however did not draw a card.

"They say _every rose has its thorn_. But in your case, I guess even _your_ petals have thorns, Black Rose." Toby said.

"What do you mean?" Akiza asked.

"I mean your dueling skills are just like your attitude. You like making people suffer and you like even more to prolong their suffering, just like you're doing with my monster." Toby gave a look to his injured Flamvell Fire Dog.

"No, that's a lie." Akiza denied.

"Oh, yeah? What about the people in the Fortune Cup?" Toby questioned. "The people who you terrorized and hurt? They just wanted to see their favorite duelists duel."

"Those people were mocking me and calling me a witch!"

"Oh, so you're saying those people deserved to get hurt, so you decide to do that yourself. Face it by hurting and scarring those people with your powers, you become what they call you." Toby insisted. Akiza was a little shaken by this, her voice began to crack.

"But…they started it." she said, but Toby carried on ignoring her.

"What about the people who got mostly hurt because of you? Did you know that 3 years ago, a model called Misty Tredwell was killed when you let your powers to go wild in a duel at the pier of New Domino." Toby said, his voice gaining a hint of rage.

"No, there were no fatalities. Sayer said…" Akiza countered, but Toby cut her short again.

"Sayer said…! Sayer is always covering up for the incidents the Arcadia Movement causes, as long he knows the dirt of Roman Goodwin." the hatred in Toby's voice increased with every word. "Have you noticed that many people that were _officially_ killed in a _random accident_ or went _missing_ in the last few years was part of this Movement? The Arcadia is not here to help anyone. It's just a disguised recruitment post for Sayer. And you Akiza are his most ruthless soldier."

"But…Sayer is my friend…he wouldn't…" Akiza mumbled, beginning the doubt herself. "But, what does this has to do with you? I haven't done anything to you."

"I disagree." Toby voice also began to tremble, but not in fear. It was pure hate. "You see, I never told you my surname. It's Tredwell, just like the name of the woman you killed. Misty was my sister and you, Black Rose, killed her! So prepare yourself for the Netherworld! I draw!"

"Since I took Battle Damage, I can Special Summon my Hell Rottweiler, the Dog Guardna. When he is Special Summoned, you take damage equal to its ATK points." the new Dog monster, in DEF mode was a Rottweiler with devil features and flaming paws, tail and hears. The dog breathed fire like a dragon against Akiza.

(Hell Rottweiler, the Dog Guardna ATK: 1600 / DEF: 2000)

(LP Akiza: 4000 - 1600 = 2400)

"Of course, now my Hell Rottweiler has to leave the field, since I used its special effect. But no worries, there's more where he came from. Next, I play my Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy your Thorn of Malice."

"Oh, no." Akiza said.

"Oh, no is right, Black Rose." Toby smirked. Black Rose Dragon lost her extra thorns and her power boost. Flamvell also recovered its lost points but remained in ATK mode.

(Black Rose Dragon ATK: 3000 - 600 = 2400 / DEF: 1800)

(Flamvell Fire Dog ATK: 1300 + 600 = 1900 / DEF: 200)

"Next, I summon my Skull Dog Marron, in DEF mode." Toby announced and fossil dog appeared, lying down.

(Skull Dog Marron ATK: 1350 / DEF: 2000)

"Now I play a Equip Spell of my own, Dog-chking, onto my Flamvell." Toby said and a huge jet pack with two missile-launchers attached itself onto Flamvell's back. "Now my monster gains 500 ATK Points for every other Beast-Type monster on my field. And since I have 2, that's 1000 ATK points."

(Flamvell Fire Dog ATK: 1900 + 1000 = 2900 / DEF: 200)

"Now Flamvell, give that dragon a piece of your mind for hurting you, earlier!" Toby commanded and Flamvell attacked Black Rose Dragon, destroying it.

(LP Akiza: 2400 - (2900 - 2400) = 1900)

"I think it's enough punishment for now. I end my turn." Toby said. Akiza tried to recompose herself (that attack to her dragon had really knocked her down).

"Listen, I didn't hurt anyone. I'm sorry for your sister, but I won't let you win, just because you got me confused with someone else." Akiza said. Toby frowned. "I activate my Synchro Spirits. By removing Black Rose Dragon from play, I can bring back the monster I used to Synchro Summon it." right then, Poison Lord and Twilight Rose knight reappeared. Akiza activated her 2nd face down. "Next, I activate Dimensional Regression, which returns my Dragon to my Extra Deck. And to end this, I activate my 3rd face down: Urgent Tuning, to bring back You-Know-Who."

The two monsters were tuned up, once again forming Black Rose Dragon.

"Now that my dragon was successfully summoned, she can destroy every card on the field!" Akiza announced and her dragon did so. Every single card, including Black Rose Dragon, on the field was wiped out in a blizzard of red petals. Every single card, but one.

"I would say that was a smart move. But don't forget that thanks to my Field Barrier, my Pack's Territory got to stick around." Toby smirked.

"Fine by me. I place one card face down and end my turn." Akiza countered. Toby drew a card and smirked widely.

"I drew it." he said. Akiza quirked an eyebrow.

"What?" she asked.

"The monster that gave me a new life. But first, I play my Wanderbull Spell to summon 2 Wanderbull Tokens." two small bulldogs appeared, each one carrying a birthday party hat. "These two little guys are destroyed in my End Phase, but won't be here, when that time comes. I release both my monsters to summon my most wicked beast."

Toby's eyes and face markings glowed purple like his dark mark. The two Tokens merged into a orb of multi-colored light. The orb floated away until it was outside the building. The orb transformed into a giant heart of stone. The heart began to absorb the darkness of the night and the souls of the bystanders.

"What's happening?" Akiza asked.

"My monster is devouring the souls of the people around us. But don't worry, it won't absorb any of us." Toby smirked and began chanting. "Now, the Door to the Netherworld will open again and the ancient seal that binds the Titans of the Shadows will be broken. By the power of the Dark Signers, I summon Earthbound Immortal Ccoshobar!"

When Toby put the card in the Monster Zone, the heart exploded into a beam of light. From the purple fire of the Dog geoglyph, a humungous dog with orange glowing lines appeared and barked/howled into the night.

(Earthbound Immortal Ccoshobar ATK: 2500 / DEF: 2300)

Akiza heard the bark/howl and looked behind her. Through a window she could a giant orange eye peeking. She gasped, covering her mouth with her hand, horrified.

"What…what is that?"

Toby, smirking, was about to order his attack but the building began to fall apart. A man's scream was heard and both Signer and Dark Signer looked up. Sayer was falling into the bottom of the building. Toby smirked, while Akiza screamed in terror.

"_Looks like my newest associate was a little too excited. Oh, well there's always the day of tomorrow."_ Toby thought before saying aloud. "It appears we will have to end this duel another day. Earthbound Immortal Ccoshobar, return to me!"

Both Leo's and Toby's Earthbound Immortals were absorbed into their cards and the geolgyphs disappeared. Toby left the collapsing building and reappeared in the top, where he knew he would find Leo.

"Oh, no! Did I just kill somebody?" he heard Leo's voice "What's with this Duel Disk? And this mark on my arm? And this outfit?"

"Leo, this is your destiny." Toby said. The Bearer of the Mark of the Dog showed himself to Leo.

"Is that you Toby?" Leo asked.

"Yes and just like you, I was chosen, 3 years ago, to be a Dark Signer." Toby said. Leo shook his head.

"Dark Signer? What's that?" Leo asked

"You're destined for greatness. You're destined to change this world. Our marks are the proofs." Toby showed his Mark of the Dog. "What you did to Sayer is what you're supposed to do to the rest of World, once you defeat your sister."

"But I only wanted to protect my sister from that creep. I didn't…" Leo then realized something. "Oh, no! Luna, where is…?"

"Don't worry. Your sister is fine. Jack Atlas and Yusei Fudo saved both her and Akiza." Toby said the older girl's name with distaste. "But don't forget that now you're a Dark Signer and Luna is your enemy."

"But…she's my sister! How can you…" Leo's outburst was cut off by Toby.

"I understand. So that's why you have to figure out something: how can you protect your sister and how can that benefit the Dark Signers?" Toby put a hand over his shoulder. Then, a chopper appeared and landed on the building close by them.

"Where are we going?" Leo asked, as Toby motioned for the two of them to go.

"To our hide out. The home of the Dark Signers." Toby answered. Inside the chopper were two other Dark Signers. The one piloting the chopper was a young redhead man in his early twenties, whose clothes were black with dark green lines. The other was a boy around Toby's age with, dark-blue hair, orange eyes and red lined black clothes. The boy seemed grumpy, while the pilot seemed more cheerful. They both eyed Leo but only the redhead replied:

"Welcome aboard Leo! I'm Crow and this Mr. Sunshine" he pointed at the dark-blue haired boy. "is Riki."

**Tah-dah! I hope you liked this. I changed the conversation between Toby and Leo in the previous chapter, so that Leo never have heard of the Dark Signers, never met Yusei or Jack and never knew his sister was a Signer.**


	8. Triple Shadow Duel: Riki VS Jack

**Signer or Dark Signer?**

**Set in different episodes. What if some of the Signers and Dark Signers were different? What if a single change in a detail could change the destiny of some individuals?**

UnderlinedCards' names

**Bold** Author Notes

(in brackets) Life, ATK or DEF points

_Italic _thoughts

_Italic and centered_ transitions

**Chapter 8: Triple Shadow Duel: Riki VS Jack**

Episode 37 (this happens at the same time as the 2 previous chapters):

Jack and Yusei entered Roman's office. Both Signers had been called there in an emergency. Roman was expecting them, his face with signs of nervous.

"Look." Roman pointed at the screen. They could see the Arcadia Movement, surrounded by the Heron geoglyph of purple fire.

"Is that…a Dark Sign?" Yusei asked. Roman nodded.

"But I that geoglyph was still in the Nazca lines." Jack muttered.

"That geoglyph has disappeared a few minutes before that Dark Sign appeared which means…" Roman began but Yusei finished:

"This is a newborn Dark Signer."

"Yes, but what intrigues me is that our marks are not glowing. Whoever is dueling the new Dark Signer is not a Signer." Roman said. Jack was going to say something but he was stopped by a new event: their marks glowing. The three Signers groaned and grabbed their glowing birthmarks. Then Jack caught something out of the corner in his eye, on the screen.

"You better look again." Jack pointed at the screen. A second geoglyph, the Mark of the Dog appeared over the Heron's, around the Arcadia Movement HQ.

"A second Dark Sign. And now there's a Signer involved." Roman said, now very concerned.

"And I have a guess it's Akiza." Yusei said. Roman pondered for a moment before Lazar entered the office:

"Mr. Goodwin, we found Miss Luna's whereabouts" the clown man said. "She was invited to the Arcadia Movement, to a guest's dinner."

"What? Then we have less time than I thought. Lazar go prepare my transport." Roman said and Lazar exited the office. He then turned to Yusei and Jack. "You two have to go to the Arcadia Movement and take Luna and Akiza out of there. If we lose any Signer before this war actually starts then we will have no chance."

"What about you?" Jack asked.

"I'm going to the Satellite." Roman answered. This puzzled both Turbo Duelists.

_A while later…_

Jack and Yusei were ridding together to the Arcadia HQ. However, suddenly a giant snake like Duel Monster appeared on their way and made the two Signers split up. Unbeknownst to them, a helicopter was hovering the whole scene. In helicopter there were two Dark Signers: the pilot and a passenger. The pilot was a young red-headed man and the passenger was a young teenager with. The passenger was holding a card with the same monster that had attacked the two Signers.

"Good move, splitting Jack and that spiky-haired bastard, Riki. It will be easier to take them out while they're alone." the pilot complimented, but the teenager Dark Signer just muttered:

"I didn't ask for a compliment, Crow. And pay attention to where you're flying. I don't want to crash on a building."

"Man, why are you always so grumpy?" Crow asked.

"I'll begin to smile a little more once I have my revenge on Jack Atlas." Riki groaned, annoyed.

"You really need to get laid. Living obsessed with revenge can make you crazy." Crow said. Riki smiled a bit, replying:

"This comes from the guy who lives obsessed with tearing Yusei Fudo apart."

"_Touché_." Crow replied back.

"And speaking of which, remember you're only here to take our newest member to our base, once the duels are over. Rex was very clear when he said it was not time to face Yusei, yet." Riki gave a stern glare at Crow.

"I know that. I've waited 4 years for this. I can wait for a couple more days." Crow smirked.

_Back with our heroes…_

"I'm gonna need a closer look." Jack ride his Duel Runner on the street. He was trying to find a passage through the wall of purple fire, at his right. Jack nearly screamed when he saw a kid and his way and barely had time to press the break. The Duel Runner stopped a few feet meters in front of the boy.

"Hey, have you no eyes, twerp? You could have got us both killed!" Jack yelled. The boy had orange eyes and dark blue hair. He was wearing blue shorts and a white shirt.

"Jack Atlas. Arrogant, self-centered, and egomaniacal." the boy said. "It will be a pleasure to take you down for what you did to me."

"Look, I don't know what you want and I don't care. I have better things to do." the blond Australian accented duelist muttered.

"If you're here to look for Akiza, then you better forget it, Signer. Right now she's dealing with one of my associates." the boy replied. Those two phrases caught Jack's attention.

"What? How do you know that? Just who are you?" Jack asked.

"If you want a name, mine is Riki." the boy replied. "And if you want a reason, it's because I am a Dark Signer who has come here to sent you to the Netherworld."

"You're a Dark Signer!" Riki showed him his left arm, which had the Mark of the Snake now glowing. Riki then had a transformation just like Leo and Toby. The lines on his dark clothes and face-tattoos were red. A third geoglyph appeared, the geoglyph of the snake, surrounding the Signer and Dark Signer.

"It's time to duel." Riki shouted, activating his Duel Disk.

"If you're a Dark Signer, then I duel." Jack said, dethatching his Duel Disk from his Duel Runner.

"Good. It would be no fun to take revenge n someone who doesn't give a fight." Riki said with a smirk.

"Revenge? What do you mean?" Jack shouted.

"You'll see. I'll go first." Riki said, drawing his sixth card. "I set a monster in DEF mode. That ends my turn."

"You call that a move? Let me show you what a move is. First I play Double Summon, which allows me to make two Normal Summons this turn. Since you have a monster and I have none, I can summon this big guy without a sacrifice. So say hello to my Big Piece Golem. Now, I use my Spell's effect to bring out some more company. Say hello to my Medium Piece Golem. And now to complete the team, I can Special Summon Small Piece Golem." Jack said. The three Rock-Type monsters grunted and raised their stone arms, prepared for battle.

(Big Piece Golem ATK: 2100 / DEF: 0)

(Medium Piece Golem ATK: 1600 / DEF: 0)

(Small Piece Golem ATK: 1100 / DEF: 0)

"Those are some powerful rock heads you got there." Riki smirked "You just summoned 3 monsters in your first turn. I see your reputation is well deserved."

"Well, I didn't know you were a fan." Jack said with a mocking smirk. "Did you join the Dark Signers just to get my autograph?"

Riki smirk changed into an enraged glare and Jack could have sworn he saw Riki's eyes and face tattoos glowing purple.

"YOU MAKE ME SICK, ATLAS!" then Riki calmed down, but his voice was still seething with hatred. "But you will see how much and why, soon enough. Just go."

"With pleasure. Now watch as my Big Piece Golem will crush you defenseless defense." Jack gloated. The biggest monster charge into an attack and punched the face down card. However, when it was flipped up, Jack had a great surprise.

Big Piece Golem's fist was blocked by the shield-shaped head of a snake.

"So what were you saying about my _defenseless defense_? By the way I see, my Venom Piton doesn't seem that defenseless." Riki asked.

(Venom Piton ATK: 0 / DEF: 2500)

Venom Piton pushed Big Piece Golem back and Jack's LP were hit.

(LP Jack: 4000 - (2500 - 2100) = 3600)

"Fine, you were lucky this round. Go ahead." Jack muttered.

"I'll start by changing the environment. I play my Field Spell Venom Swamp." Riki said.

The field mutated into a foggy swamp. The only difference between a normal swamp and this swamp was that water was red and acid.

"Nice." Jack said, sarcastically. "What does your swamp do?"

"Places 1 Venom-counter on each face-up monster, every End Phase. But you will learn more about that later. Now I summon my Venom Viper." a snake with a smaller snake coming out of its mouth appeared.

(Venom Viper ATK: 1800 / DEF: 1000)

"Next, I'll use its Special Ability. I'll place one Venom-counter on one of your monsters. Though my snake will be forced to attack that monster. Now Venom Viper, poison that Medium Piece Golem."

The Venom monster launched itself at the rock monster and buried its fangs on the hard rock. The golem trembled as a new Venom-counter appeared over his head.

(Medium Piece Golem ATK: 1100 - 500 = 600 / DEF: 0)

Next, Venom Viper fired a jet of red liquid at the same golem which was destroyed right on the spot.

(LP Jack: 3600 - (1800 - 600) = 2400)

"I place a card face down and end my turn. And speaking of ending turns, your monsters are about to get another dose of poison." Riki smirked as one mover Venom-counter appeared hovering Jack's monster which grew weaker.

(Big Piece Golem ATK: 1600 - 500 = 1100 / DEF: 0)

(Small Piece Golem ATK: 600 - 500 = 100 / DEF: 0)

'_This twerp is more skilled than I thought. But fortunately for me, I have the right cards to finish him off. If I can take down that Field Spell, his Venom-counters will be useless.'_ Jack drew a card and began his move "First, I play my Giant Trunade, which will send every Spell and Trap back to our hands. So say goodbye to your swamp."

Jack thought he had this in the bag, but he was wrong.

"Not so fast. I activate my face down trap: Snake Deity's Command. Now by showing you a Venom monster in my hand." Riki revealed a Venom Boa in his hand. "I can destroy one of your Spells or Traps. So _you_ say goodbye to _your_ card."

Giant Trunade was negated and destroyed. Jack was upset, but not worried. He still had a back-up plan for this turn.

"No big deal. I play my Stop Defense, changing your Venom Piton to ATK mode." the snake with the shield-shaped-head changed mode, into a more offensive position. Riki frowned, upset that Jack put his best defense in a suicide position.

(Venom Piton ATK: 0 / DEF: 2500)

"Next, I summon Flare Resonator. Then I play Dragon Calling, which allows me to sacrifice a non-Dragon monster to summon a Dragon monster. So I'll dispatch Small Piece Golem to the graveyard to bring out The Dragon Dwelling in the cave."

The rock monster was replaced by a mighty grunting dragon, with a glare of hunger.

(The Dragon Dwelling in the cave; lv. 4; ATK: 1300 / DEF: 2000)

(Flare Resonator; Tuner; lv. 3; ATK: 300 / DEF: 1300)

"I tune my lv. 4 Dragon Dwelling in the cave with my lv. 3 Flare Resonator." the Tuner monster turned into three green rings which encircled the dragon. "I Synchro Summon Exploder Dragonwing. And since I use Flare Resonator for a Synchro Summon, my dragon gains 300 ATK points."

(Exploder Dragonwing ATK: 2400 + 300 = 2700 / DEF: 1600)

"Nice move. But all you managed to do is beating one of my Venom Monsters. I still have lots of them in my Deck. Besides, once your turn comes to an end, my Field Spell will begin to weaken your lizard." Riki said, not preoccupied. Jack grinned:

"You forget his Special ability. If he battles a monster whose ATK is equal or less than its own ATK, it can destroy that monster in a blink and the damage you take is equal to the destroyed monster's ATK points."

"Oh, great!" Riki muttered.

"You got that right. Now Exploder Dragonwing take out that Venom Viper!" Jack ordered and the dragon did so, incinerating the snake with a storm of flames.

(LP Riki: 4000 – 1800 = 2200)

"Time to get your revenge, Big Piece Golem. Send that Venom Piton to the Graveyard." the weakened golem charged at the 0 ATK piton, damaging Riki's LP further.

(LP Riki: 2200 – 1100 = 1100)

"Now, I'm angry." Riki hissed like a snake. "But since your turn is over, your monsters pay the price."

Two more Venom-counters appeared, one for each monster.

(Big Piece Golem ATK: 1100 - 500 = 600 / DEF: 0)

(Exploder Dragonwing ATK: 2700 - 500 = 2200 / DEF: 1600)

"It's my move. First, I'll use Viper's Rebirth. Since my graveyard only has Reptile-Type monsters, I can bring back a non-Tuner. And the monster I choose is Venom Viper. But this little guy won't stick around for a long time." Riki activated another Spell. "Now I activate Cost Down to lower a monster's level in my hand from 8 to 6. Now I can bring it out with a single sacrifice. You see, Jack Atlas, nowadays not everybody needs to Synchro Summon. Meet Vennominon, the King of Poisonous Snakes."

This new monster was a humanoid-looking snake dressed like a sovereign. Its fingers were snakes and the tail was massive. The head was partly hidden under the crown but Jack could make out snake features.

"Vennominon's ATK and DEF points are determined by the number of Venom monster on my Graveyard. 500 points for each monster, and since I have 2, that's 1000 points."

(Vennominon, the King of Poisonous Snakes ATK: 1000 / DEF: 1000)

"Ah! Your snake still needs to learn how to bit if he wants to take on my dragon." Jack mocked.

"I'm not finished. I play two Spell Cards: Snake Rain and Venom Shot. I discard 1 Venom monster to use my Snake Rain, which lets me send 4 Venom monsters from my Deck to the grave, strengthening my monster." Riki grinned. "Then to activate Venom Shot, I send a Reptile monster **(1) **to the Graveyard to place 2 Venom-counters on your dragon."

"Oh, no." Jack said.

"I see you can count. Not only has your dragon lost 1000 ATK points, but I've sent 5 Venom monsters to Graveyard. You know what that means; I've added 2500 points to my King of Poisonous Snakes gained

(Exploder Dragonwing ATK: 2200 - 1000 = 1200 / DEF: 1600)

(Vennominon, the King of Poisonous Snakes ATK: 3500 / DEF: 3500)

"Just go." Jack groaned.

"You bet I will. Go, Vennominon destroy his dragon." Riki ordered and the King of Poisonous Snakes did so, annihilating Jack's Synchro. "Your LP are reduce to 100 and your only monster is a puny poisoned rock. And speaking of which, your rock-head golem is about to get weaker since I end my turn."

(LP Jack: 2400 - (3500 - 1200) = 100)

(Big Piece Golem ATK: 600 - 500 = 100 / DEF: 0)

"So, wanna give up now, Jackie? I promise I'll make _try_ to make your death quick and painless." Riki smirked. Many other duelists would accept Riki's obviously fake offer and Jack Atlas was not any of those duelists.

"Not on my watch, pipsqueak." Jack growled, drawing his card (he hoped that wouldn't be his last draw). "I play Pot of Greed which allows me to draw 2 cards."

"Like anybody doesn't know that." Riki retorted. Jack look at his deck and said in his inner thoughts:

'_It all comes down to this_._'_ Jack drew his cards and looked at them. They were Dragon Nails and Mind Trust. Jack was smirking when he looked at Riki.

"Sorry to disappoint you, Riki. But Jack Atlas isn't going anywhere." Jack shouted, proudly. "I play my Mind Trust Spell. Now I discard my lv. 6 Strong Wind Dragon to bring back my Flare Resonator. Now I tune my lv. 3 Flare Resonator and my lv. 5 Big Piece Golem. I Synchro Summon Red Archfiend Dragon. And since I used Flare Resonator, my dragon gets a 300 ATK boost. Next, I'll equip him with Dragon Nails, giving my beast 600 extra ATK points."

The red demon-like dragon roared menacingly, with strength and desire for fighting in his grunt.

(Red Dragon Archfiend ATK: 3000 + 600 + 300 = 3900 / DEF: 2000)

"Now Red Dragon Archfiend, teach this snake-fetish Dark Signer why I am the King." Jack ordered and his ace incinerated Vennominon with a flaming punch.

(LP Riki: 1100 - (3900 - 3500) = 700)

"Next, I play a face down and end my turn." Jack said and Archfiend received its first Venom-counter.

(Archfiend ATK: 3900 - 500 = 3400 / DEF: 2000)

"You sure will be fun to erase from existence, Atlas." Riki was grinning but Jack knew the Dark Signer was angry. Riki drew a card and gave Jack a deadly evil smile. "I drew it."

"What?" Jack asked.

"Your doom. But first, I'll activate my Vennominon's ability. By removing one Venom monster in the Graveyard from the game, I ca resurrect my King of Poisonous Snakes. So I remove Venom Boa to bring back you-know-who."

With that, Vennominon reappeared. However, by removing Venom Cobra from the Graveyard to do so, the resurrected monster lost some of its strength.

(Vennominon, King of Poisonous Snakes ATK/DEF: 3500 - 500 = 3000)

"What's the point of bringing back a monster I already defeated and weaken it in the process?" Jack asked.

"You'll see. Next I play Resurrection of the Venom, which allows me to resurrect a Venom monster. So say 'hello' to my Venom Serpent." a green snake with two heads appeared, both hissing at Red Dragon Archfiend.

(Venom Serpent ATK: 1000 / DEF: 800)

"Why would do that? That weakens your King even more." Jack said. And so it did:

(Vennominon, King of Poisonous Snakes ATK/DEF: 3000 - 500 = 2500)

Before Riki could continue his move, a sound of glass cracking high above them was heard. Amazingly a giant heart of stone had just appeared close by the Arcadia HQ. The passersby began to turn into lights and were absorbed into the heart.

"What's happening? Are you causing this?" Jack questioned.

"Just watch." Riki answered. Soon enough the heart exploded in light and a giant black dog with orange stripes appeared.

"What the…? What is _that_?" Jack nearly screamed.

"That is an Earthbound Immortal. You don't have to worry about that one. But don't you worry; I have one myself." Riki gloated.

"You have a one of those?" Jack asked in bewilderment. Soon enough, another heart appeared from a higher floor of the building. The process was repeated. However, this time, the spirits that entered the heart came from the sky and not from the people. This time, a giant heron with white stripes appeared, chirping into the night.

"One wasn't enough?" Jack muttered.

"If you ask me, two isn't enough. Now _three _are company." Riki smirked. "Now you see why I summoned two monsters? I need 2 sacrifices in order to summon my own Earthbound Immortal."

"I can take anything you throw at me." Jack retorted. Riki's monsters turned into two balls of colored light which merged together and formed a new heart. The heart began to absorb even more spirits form random people. Riki's eyes and face tattoos glowed purple.

"After a long 5000-year-lethargy, the sealed Immortals will rise again and feast on the souls of this wretched world! I summon Earthbound Immortal Cuauhcoatl!"

The third heart exploded and a behemoth snake with red lines rose up from the purple fire of the geoglyph and hissed into the sky.

(Earthbound Immortal Cuauhcoatl ATK: 2700 / DEF: 2600)

**(A.N.: I don't own the ****Earthbound Immortall Cuauhcoatl****. All the Earthbound Immortals on this fict are owned by ****Raphtil**** save for Razca. They are all on Deviantart. Just search for Cuauhcoatl, the snake Immortal.)**

"Another snake!" Jack growled.

"Not an ordinary snake. This is the Immortal that battled your dragon 5000 years ago. And now he's back for vengeance." Cuauhcoatl hissed loudly, like proving what Riki meant. "Just like me."

"Prepare yourself for the Netherworld, for my monster can attack your LP directly but you can't attack it. And there's no Trap, Spell or Monster's effect that can harm him either. You're doomed!" Riki was about to order a finishing attack, but the Universe did not allow him. A loud chirping sound of a bird thundered into the night. Both Signer and Dark Signer looked at the Leo's Earthbound Immortal. Huacachina Kon just penetrated the building with its beak, destroying an entire floor in the process. And by doing so, the giant heron also hit several other buildings with its wings. Some of them too close to Riki and Jack. Fragments of those building began to fall over the dueling field.

"It figures the newbie would interrupt my duel." Riki muttered, angry. He then turned to Jack. "Looks like we will have to end this another day."

Riki raised his monster card and shouted.

"Earthbound Immortal Cuauhcoatl, return to me!" Riki's Earthbound Immortal, along with Leo's and Toby's, was absorbed into the cards and the 3 geoglyphs began to disappear. Riki then vanished into the fire.

_Later, in the helicopter…_

"Darn it! If it wasn't for that rookie..." Riki muttered. Crow was piloting the chopper to the top of the ruined Arcadia building to get Leo and Toby to their hide out, in the first Ener-D reactor abyss.

"Just give the kid a break. He's was ecstatic to finish off that Psychic chump." Crow whispered, landing the chopper where Toby and Leo were. "Besides, you'll get another chance."

Riki ignored him and watched as Toby motioned for Leo to enter. Riki gave the newest Dark Signer a cold glare when he looked at him. He was still annoyed that Leo blew his chance of dealing with Atlas. Crow, however was much more welcoming:

"Welcome aboard Leo! I'm Crow and this Mr. Sunshine" he pointed at grumpy Riki. "is Riki."

**And so it ends our triple duel. Next chapter will be Yusei VS Crow and we get to meet Kalin. In the second duel of Riki VS Jack will be a Turbo Duel. Now here is a note from the duel, when Riki played ****Venom Shot****. **

**( 1 ) **– The Reptile Monster Riki discarded to activate Venom Shot is not a Venom Monster, so he has only tossed 5 Venom monsters on that turn: one to activate Snake Rain and other 4 due to the effect of Snake Rain.


	9. Bounding and Rebounding

**Signer or Dark Signer?**

**Set in different episodes. What if some of the Signers and Dark Signers were different? What if a single change in a detail could change the destiny of some individuals?**

Underlined_ – _Cards' names

**Bold** – Author Notes

(in brackets) – Life, ATK or DEF points

_Italic _– thoughts

_Italic and centered_ – transitions

**In this fanfict, Ancient Fairy Dragon is not under the Minus Curse. Plus, she and Regulus are already in Luna's deck.**

**Chapter 9: Bounding and Rebounding**

Roman had just returned from the Satellite and was now in the hospital. Yusei and Jack were watching Akiza in her bed. Luna was with them, uneasy and worried sick about her brother.

"How is she?" – Roman asked.

"The doctors say she's gonna be fine, though she is in some sort of coma." – Jack resumed. Yusei, who had rescued Luna from the Arcadia building, gave a look to the small girl. Despite having just met her, Luna developed a small bound with Akiza when they were in the Arcadia. Roman approached Luna:

"Hello, Luna. I am Roman Goodwin." – Roman felt somewhat stupid introducing himself like that; everybody in this city knew him.

"Why do you keep me here? Where is Leo?" – Luna asked.

"I'll will explain when Akiza wakes up. But know your brother is alive and safe." – Roman then added in his mind. – '_As safe and alive as a Dark Signer can be_.'

Roman turned his gaze back to Akiza. Luna didn't know what to do, but someone always knew: Ancient Fairy Dragon. Luna closed and her eyes and posed like praying:

"_Ancient Fairy Dragon? Regulus? Are you there?"_ – Luna asked.

"_We have always been here._" – a female echoing voice whispered. Luna could now see Regulus and Ancient Fairy Dragon.

"_I don't know what's happening? Leo might be hurt or even worse and now these people are saying they need me."_

"_There is a great darkness threatening both worlds. You, Akiza, Yusei, Jack and Roman are the key to stop it. You five have been marked by the Crimson Dragon._" – the dragon spoke.

"_What danger?_" – Luna asked.

"_Right now, in the Spirit World, the Machine monsters have begun capturing all the other Duel Spirits and imprisoned them into stone tablets. However, those duel spirits are recently gone. They were absorbed into the darkness._" – Regulus resumed.

"_Despite the machines have stopped now, I fear they will return again for the hunger of the shadows is endless."_ – Ancient Fairy Dragon said.

"_But how come what's happening on your world has anything to do with what's happening here?"_ – Luna questioned, confused.

"_The demons you saw in your dream fighting me and my fellow dragons. They are the menace to both our worlds."_ – Ancient Fairy Dragon said. – "_I don't know nothing more, but I know you can trust Akiza and Yusei."_

With that, both Duel Spirits disappeared and Luna looked back at the unconscious Akiza. Right then, two people appeared; a man with thick beard and a woman with red hair. They both looked frightened and worried sick at Akiza.

"My little rose!" – the woman whispered with teary eyes.

"Little rose? Are they Akiza's parents?" – Luna murmured and then recalled that Akiza had a fallen out with her parents, a few years ago.

"Ah, Senator!" – Roman said, shaking hands rapidly with the man, though the newcomers were both more concerned about Akiza than niceties.

"Director Goodwin! How is she?" – the Senator asked.

"The doctors say she's in some sort of co…" – Roman statement was cut off by Jack:

"Hey, wait. She's waking up."

_Meanwhile, deep in the crater of the B.A.D. area…_

In a dark room of the old Ener-D Reactor basement, Leo was sitting in the bed. His darkened eyes showed confusion and disbelief. In own moment, his life was flashing in front of his eyes. In the next, he wakes up with a new life. A life that he must use to hurt Luna. Do to his resurrection as a Dark Signer, Leo now knew everything about the Crimson Dragon, the King of the Netherworld, the Immortals, Signers and Dark Signers. But what troubled him the most was the fact that he would have to duel his own sister and probably kill her if he won. Right then, the door opened and a brunette entered. His dark clothes had orange lines and he bears the Mark of the Dog; it was Toby.

"Hey, Leo! You've been the whole day in here. Why don't you come out?"

"I don't want to." – Leo answered with a sad sigh. Toby gave him a sympathetic look and approached him.

"You're still worried about you sister. Knowing that you will have to duel her, right?" – Toby asked. Leo didn't answer but he could see his eyes said 'yes'.

"I don't know what to do. I have to duel her but I don't want to hurt her or worse…" – Leo recalled what he did to Sayer, though he didn't really felt (much) sorry about that.

"I'm sorry, but you have to." – Toby showed him his Mark of the Shadows. – "We are all bound to the Immortals and he have an obligation to them. We can't let the Signers live and as long your sister is a Signer..."

"I know but…" – Leo closed his eyes, feeling defeated. As long as Luna had that stupid red mark on her arm, she would be… Then, it hit him. Those were the magic words! – As long as she is a _Signer_…"

"Hu, what?" – Toby asked. Leo turned to Toby with a glimpse of hope in his eyes.

"Toby, what if Luna becomes a Dark Signer if I win?" – Toby was confused, before those words sink in.

"Well, I don't know if that is even possible. Maybe Rex knows." – Toby thought for a while. – "I guess you can, just so long she's no longer a servant of the Crimson Dragon. The laws of the Immortals only state that we must defeat the Signers. They don't say we can't make them join us."

Leo cheered up, becoming his old enthusiastic energetic self. The youngest Dark Signer stood up with a smile and Toby smiled a bit too, seeing him glad.

"Now that's settled, why don't you take walk. You're deck will get rusted if you stay one more minute in here." – Toby suggested and Leo agreed. The two Dark Signers walked through the corridors of the original Ener-D Reactor Head-quarters. They arrive at the central, where the old reactor was stationed.

"So it was Yusei Fudo's dad who built this and then Rex blew it up, to release the Earthbound Immortals, hu?" – Leo questioned, eyeing the old reactor.

"Yep, but his brother Roman managed to take the cards of the Signer Dragons with him. 17 years ago, after the Zero Reverse, Roman arrived at Neo Domino and ended up becoming head of Sector Security." – Toby then smirked. – "How convenient to that Signer to become the one of the greatest high-ups of Neo Domino, hu?"

"Yeah, I guess…" – Leo responded. Then a increasing noise interrupted their talk and walk. It was the sound of a noisy engine. From another corridor a dark red small Duel Runner came, slowing down as it approached the central. The Duel Runner was designed basing on a snake and had black lines. The rider took off his helmet, revealing to be Riki.

"Wow, nice ride." – Leo complimented. Riki was still upset at Leo for ruining his chances to kill Jack Atlas, though not as much as in the beginning.

"I know and it's with this little one I'll beat Atlas." – Riki gloated.

"How? As far as I'm concerned, your deck doesn't have any Speed Spells and you need your Venom Swamp in play otherwise your monster won't stand a chance. And you can't use Venom Swamp on a Turbo Duel." – Toby pointed out.

"I'm working on it." – Riki muttered. He dismounted his Duel Runner and glanced at Leo for a moment. – "So you're the guy who doesn't want to fight his sister, right"

"Yeah, so?" – Leo questioned back, frowning.

"How come you were chosen to be a Dark Signer if you're scared of a girl?" – Riki asked with a mocking chuckle.

"Hey, I'm not scared. I just don't want to hurt her." – Leo replied.

"Yeah, right!" – Riki rolled his eyes. – "Admit it, you're scared."

"Shut up, Richie!" – Leo snapped.

"It's _Riki_."

Toby stood in the sidelines. He knew what Riki intended with that argument and he wanted to know how it was going to end.

"Whatever, Rick!"

"Ok, that's it. I challenge you to duel, right her, right now." – Riki said.

"You got it!" – Leo activated his duel disk.

"Just don't forget it guys. This is no Shadow Duel. No dark powers, no Earthbound Immortals." – Toby said. Right then, Crow showed up, running to them.

"Hey guys, what…"

"There dueling. Let's not interrupted them, for now." – Toby whispered. Crow shrugged:

"Well, I suppose Rex can wait." – Crow joined him, watching the duel.

"To make things more interesting, let's start with 2000 LP. You agree or are you scared?" – Riki taunted.

"I'm only scared of your face." – Leo taunted back. – "But I agree."

"I'm going first. I play one monster in DEF mode. Your move." – Riki said.

"I'll show you a move." – Leo hissed. – "I summon my Morphtronic Chainsaw in ATK. With him out, all Morphtronics gain 1000 extra points depending on which mode he is. And this bonus applies to him, as well."

(Morphtronic Chainsaw ATK: 1000 + 1000 = 2000 / DEF: 800)

"Say good bye to your monster. Let him have it, Chainsaw." – Leo ordered the attack and Riki smirked. The robot charged against the card, which flipped up, revealing to be a snake partly inside a jar.

"You walked right into my hands. That monster is my Cobra Jar and when it's flipped up…" – the Morphtronic destroyed the Reptile. – "…I get to summon a Poisonous Snake Token."

(Poisonous Snake Token ATK: 1200 / DEF: 1200)

"Great, you get rid of one snake ad another shows up." – Leo muttered.

"Just finish your move." – Riki muttered back.

"I set one face down and end my turn." – Leo concluded, setting up a card he hoped he wouldn't need.

"I summon my Cobraman Sazuki in ATK." – Riki's new monster was humanoid snake, dressed and equipped like an Ancient Egyptian soldier.

(Cobraman Sazuki ATK: 800 / DEF: 1400)

"Next, I play two Spell cards: Reptilianne Rage and Solidarity. I equip my Reptilianne Rage to my Poisonous Snake. This gives my monster 800 ATK points. This will equal my Token's power to your toy's."

A colorful mask attached itself to the Token's face. The snake hissed, enhanced with extra power.

(Poisonous Snake Token ATK: 1200 + 800 = 2000 / DEF: 1200)

"No good." – Leo whispered.

"No good is right. And there's still my Solidarity. As long as the monster in my Graveyard are all of the same type, the monster on my field who are also of that type gain 800 ATK." – Riki explained with a smirk. - "And since I only have Reptile-Type monsters, you're in trouble."

(Poisonous Snake Token ATK: 2000 + 800 = 2800 / DEF: 1200)

(Cobraman Sazuki ATK: 800 + 800 = 1600 / DEF: 1400)

"Time to end this duel, Poisonous Snake Token destroy his monster." – Riki ordered, already seeing his victory. But Leo wouldn't let that happen.

"Not so fast. I activate my Morphtransition trap. Your attack is negated and my monster is changed into DEF mode." – Leo said and so it happened. The Token stopped the onslaught and Morphtronic Chainsaw transformed into a real chainsaw.

(Morphtronic Chainsaw ATK: 2000 – 1000 = 1000 / DEF: 900 + 1000 = 1900)

"And thanks to its Special ability, my monster's DEF is powered up. Now your Cobraman can't finish what your Poisonous Snake started." – Leo gloated. And Riki had to admit he was right.

"Nice move, Leo!" – Toby complimented.

"Fine, I play a face down. It's your move unless you're afraid that something bites you." – Riki hissed, _almost_ like a snake. Leo grimaced:

"You should go see a doctor about the fact that your deck is affecting your mind." – Riki ignored that commentary. In the sidelines, Crow turned to Toby and asked in a low voice:

"You think Leo has any chance?" – the orange**-**haired Dark Signer asked.

"I think Riki has better chances of winning, though I bet Leo will put up a good fight." – Toby said, honestly.

"I play my Morphtronic Industry Field Spell. Now every Morphtronic on the field gains 300 ATK points." – Leo said.

(Morphtronic Chainsaw ATK: 1000 + 300 = 1300 / DEF: 1900)

"Next, I summon my Morphtronic Monster Truck, in ATK mode. Next, I change my Morphtronic Chainsaw back to ATK mode." – Leo smirked. – "With both my field spell out and my Chainsaw in ATK, you do the math."

(Morphtronic Monster Truck ATK: 1500 + 300 + 1000 = 2800 / DEF: 0)

(Morphtronic Chainsaw ATK: 1000 + 300 + 1000 = 2300 / DEF: 900)

"Now, Morphtronic Monster Truck take out Poisonous Snake Token!" – Leo demanded. Both monsters had the same attack, so when they battled both were destroyed, leaving both duelists with one monster each.

"Our turn, Morphtronic Chainsaw. Destroy that humanoid snake! It's really creeping me out!" – Leo ordered. His monster destroyed Riki's, cutting it in half.

(Morphtronic Chainsaw ATK: 2300 / DEF: 900)

(Cobraman Sazuki ATK: 1600 / DEF: 1400)

(Riki LP: 2000 – (2300 – 1600) = 1300)

"About time there's a battle." – Crow said.

"There was bound to be a battle involving monster with power bonus." – Toby mused.

"What do you mean?" – Crow asked, confused.

"They both started with 2000 LP. In the first days of duel monsters, when there weren't many Archetypes or ways to easily summon stronger monster, such as Synchros. The only way to get the upper-hand was to have the strongest monster. And those ways usually involved Tribute Summon or Fusion Summon. However, these two have Archetypes and ways to get strong monsters easily. But they started with 2000 LP each. In other words, they can both destroy each other easily but withstanding a single attack might be difficult with just 2000 LP or less, since strong monsters nowadays are far more powerful than the strong monster in the beginnings of Duel Monsters." – Toby explained patiently. He continued:

"This is practically the same as in a war, two armies go to battle. Both sides have the greatest technologic weaponry. Every single soldier armed to their teeth. However, there's a deadly issue; the numbers. Both armies are relatively small and the loss of a single soldier might cause their side's downfall. Therefore, each side will only attack if it's sure that attack will devastate or at least, kill many of the enemy soldier. That's because the attacking side doesn't want to risk losing a single soldier in an attack that might be frustrated."

"_Man, that was some lecture! I got to admit Toby might be even better Duelist than I am with a brain like that."_ – Crow thought, though he would never admit it out loud. Toby's ratiocinate seemed flawless, but then Crow recalled something. – "But there's something off in this. Leo just attacked Riki and his attack didn't even take half of Riki's LP. How do you explain that?"

"I don't know. How can I know what Leo is thinking? Either he has a strategy that will be practically impossible to counter or he's just desperate." – Toby concluded.

"_Once again_, _he surprises me. I'm grateful I'm not that Black Rose Witch Signer."_ – Crow muttered in his mind. Back on the duel, if Riki's look could kill, Leo would be dead (again) by now.

"I place one face down and end my turn." – Leo finished his move.

"It's your funeral, Morphtwerp!" – Riki hissed. – "I play my Field Spell Venom Swamp. Now that your field spell is gone, your bucket of bolts looses his bonus."

(Morphtronic Chainsaw ATK: 2300 – 300 = 2000 / DEF: 900)

"Next I activate a Trap called Reptile Reincarnation, from my hand." – Riki showed him a card that had the picture of a lizard been turned into a snake and a snake been turned into a lizard.

"Since when can you activate a Trap from your hand?" – Leo questioned.

"Since I tribute a Trap on my field to do so. I sacrifice my face down Trap Venom Immunity to activate Reptile Reincarnation from my hand. Since two Reptile monsters have been destroyed last turn, I can summon two new reptiles to take their place, just so long their ATK isn't higher than the ATK of the destroyed monsters. So I summon my Venom Snake and Venom Serpent. And thanks to my Solidarity, they both get a bonus."

(Venom Snake ATK: 1200 + 800 = 2000 / DEF: 600)

(Venom Serpent ATK: 1000 + 800 = 1800 / DEF: 800)

"As much as I would love to attack right now and practically wipe out every LP you have, I want to make you squirm first. It's time to shed some poison." – Riki said. – "By not attacking this turn, my monster can place a Venom Counter on 1 of your monster. And since I don't have much of a choice, your Morphtronic Chainsaw will have to do. Get him!"

Both the snake and the serpent bite the machine monster which weakens.

(Morphtronic Chainsaw ATK: 2000 – (2 * 500) = 1000 / DEF: 900)

"I end my turn with that. And now that my turn is over, Venom Swanp's effect kicks in, placing 1 Venom Counter on each non-Venom Monster. How do you like that?" – Riki smirked as another venom counter appeared over Leo's monster, weakening it further.

(Morphtronic Chainsaw ATK: 1000 – 500 = 500 / DEF: 900)

"Riki has turned the tide in a single turn. Looks like he's really kicking things into overdrive." – Crow said, imitating Jack Atlas catchphrase. A catchphrase that Riki despised above everything else, expect for Jack Atlas himself.

"Say that catchphrase again and I'll offer your insides as a breakfast to my Earthbound Immortal, Crow Ethan Hogan!" – the dark-blue haired Dark Signer hissed, like a snake (again).

"I would like to see you try." – Crow smiled, not intimated in the slightest.

"I play my Pot of Greed, so I can get two cards from my deck." – Leo drew two cards and smiled. – "I play Cost Down to decrease my monster's level by 2.

(Morphtronic Chainsaw; lv.4 – 2 = 2)

"Next, I summon my Dark Tuner Dark Megatronic. And you know what that means, don't you?"

"Well, go ahead!" – Riki said, with a smirk. Toby frowned at Riki's action.

"I tune my lv. 2 Morphtronic Chainsaw and my lv. 9 Dark Megatronic." – the Dark Tuner transformed into 9 dark level-stars. The stars entered Chainsaw's body and two of them consumed the 2 level-stars of the Morphtronic. Chainsaw exploded and the remaining dark level-stars made a spinning circle. – "When the shadows are devoured by even darker shadows, the curtain pulls back to reveal…a world without light! Come forth, JIGSAW Dragon!"

The dark version of Leo's former ace appeared with its homicidal look. Riki should be angry or nervous that Leo brought his most powerful beast, after his Immortal, to the field. However, the bearer of the Mark of the Snake was smiling, like he was expecting that monster. Curiously, Leo had the same smile as Riki's.

"_Why are they smiling like that?_" – Toby wondered, puzzled.

"Now, I activate my face down Spell Synchro Desrutpion which destroys a Spell card on the field by every Synchro I have. Since I have one, you can kiss your Field Spell goodbye." – Venom Swamp was destroyed, leaving the field with no Field Spell. – "Next I equip my dragon with my Morphtronic Chainsaw from my Graveyard."

(Chainsaw Dragon ATK: 2300 + 1000 = 3300 / DEF: 2500 + 900 = 3400)

"It's your turn, Riki. Hit me with your best shot." – Leo said.

"Why didn't he attack?" – Crow asked, confused. – "What is Leo up to?"

"You got it." – Riki responded to his opponent's remark. It was then that Toby made a silent 'oh' and smiled.

"What is it?" – Crow asked, who had just noticed Toby's reaction.

"I get it now. This duel is no longer about winning." – the bearer of the Mark of the Dog said.

"I sacrifice both my monsters to bring out my Vennominon the King of Poisonous Snakes." – Riki shouted as his 2nd strongest monster showed up. The partly-humanoid snake hissed at the metallic dragon who roared in return. – "Since I have 5 Venom **(1)** monsters on my Graveyard, my King of Poisonous Snakes gets 2500 ATK points. Plus he gets 800 extra points thanks to Solidarity."

(Vennominon the King of Poisonous Snakes ATK: 5 * 500 + 800 = 3300 / DEF: 5 * 500 = 2500)

"I place one card face down and end my turn." – Riki ended his turn.

"Their monsters are even now. If Leo equips his dragon with another Morphtronic, it will be stronger than Vennominon." – Crow said.

"I don't think Leo will do that. Like I said, this duel is no longer about winning." – Toby smiled. And he was right.

"Time to end this duel! JIGSAW Dragon attack!" – Leo demanded.

"Vennominon, counter-attack!" – Riki shouted. Both monsters lashed out at each other.

"Why did Leo do that? Both monsters have 3300 ATK!" – Crow shouted, puzzled. Next, both duelists announced at the same time:

"I play my Trap card: Titan Impact! When my monster battles a monster in ATK mode with the same ATK points, you get damage equal to the ATK points!" – both boys shouted and both traps activated as the two battling monster destroyed each other.

(Riki LP: 1300 – 3300 = 0) **DRAW!**

(Leo LP: 2000 – 3300 = 0) **DRAW!**

The Field disappeared and both duelists walked up to each other. Riki smiled and gave Leo his hand. The newest Dark Signer shook it with the same smile.

"See, at some point, Riki only wanted to know if Leo had the stomach to win. Riki seems to have accepted Leo as part of the group." – Toby whispered to Crow. The Darkwing Dark Signer frowned; that reminded of him and Yusei back in the old days.

"OK, enough! Rex has called a meeting, so let's move." – Crow stated coldly. That display of a possible friendship reminded him of Yusei. – "_Your best friend today may be your sworn enemy tomorrow."_

The five Dark Signers were gathered in the darkest dustiest room in the whole hide out. The group was sitting at a old wooden table and the only source of light were five candles. Four of them were looking at the leader of the group, the oldest Dark Signer: Rex Goodwin, bearer of the Mark of the Condor.

"Yusei is planning to come to the Satellite for a little investigation." – Rex told, under his cloak he smirked. Crow clenched his fist, hearing the name of his former friend. – "And what kind of hosts would we be if we didn't give him some hospitality?"

"He's mine. My old friend and I have a score to settle!" – Crow stood up. For a moment, his mark glowed symbolizing the hatred his bearer felt towards Yusei.

"As you wish, Crow. Though I don't think destiny wants the real war between the Darkness and the Light to begin right now. This is just the first assault and even if you win, Yusei will survive, such is the will of destiny." – Rex warned monotonously.

"Destiny smechiny!" – Crow said, taking off.

"There's one man with him called Kalin Kessler. Is anyone interested in hunting down another soul?" – Rex asked to the remaining three.

"Not interested!" – Riki, Toby and Leo said at the same time.

* * *

><p><strong>Next episode, we will have my first Turbo Duel. Plus, we will meet Kalin and find out what he has been up too in the last 4 years.<strong>

**( 1 )** – Venom Immunity turns the Reptile-Type monster on your field in Venom Monster. If the card is discarded or destroyed, it will function with the monster's on the Graveyard. Since Riki dumped his Venom Immunity Trap, the card began to work on his Graveyard, turning all of his fallen monster into Venom monsters.


	10. Yusei VS Crow

**The Path of the Dark Signers**

**Set in different episodes. What if some of the Signers and Dark Signers were different? What if a single change in a detail could change the destiny of some individuals?**

Underlined– Cards' names

**Bold** – Author Notes

(in brackets) – Life, ATK or DEF points

"_Italic"_ –thoughts

_Italic_ – Flashback

_Italic and centered_ – transitions

**The fict will enter into a brief HIATUS until April 2012 so don't expect any new chapter for now.**

**Chapter 10: Yusei VS Crow**

In the BAD of the Satellite Sector, Yusei Fudo was riding with his so thought long-lost friend, Kalin Kessler. And now a stranger ridding a black Duel Runner with green lines. His clothes matched his Duel Runner.

"Hello, Yusei. And good to see you too, Kalin. Long time no see, hu punks!" the stranger greeted, his head covered by a helmet.

_Flashback_:

_ When Akiza had woke up, she was less than pleased to see her parents there. Yusei dueled her and in the end, he won and Akiza and her parents rebounded._

_ "Stardust Dragon!" Yusei commanded and his ace destroyed Akiza's, winning the duel. After the duel, Yusei went to talk to Roman._

_ "We shouldn't force her into joining us, even though the whole world is at stake. She was hurt pretty bad and still needs time with her family." Yusei said to which Roman agreed. "Besides I should go to the Satellite. There are some people I need to see and something I need to investigate."_

_ "Well, I'm not your babysitter, Yusei. Go if you want. But don't mess into something too big for you. The Dark Signers don't take kindly to intruders." Roman answered._

_ In the Satellite, Yusei is riding on his Duel Runner until he finds another Turbo Duelist, Kalin Kessler._

_ "Well, well, look what the cat dragged in. What's the great champion of Turbo Duels of Neo Domino city doing here?" his old friend asked._

_ "Kalin!" Yusei greeted. Both duelists knocked their fists. "I thought you had disappeared after the Enforcers."_

_ "Well, yeah. I wondered a lot by the BAD." Kalin explained. "Come on, let's ride"_

_ The two friends rode alongside until they reached the BAD where Kalin told him that people were disappearing._

_ "After what happened to Crow." Kalin related sadly. "I wondered the BAD area in a walkabout. There I found a kid named Tommy who was been chased by some thugs who wanted his cards. I saved him and well, adopted him. Since Crow's kids were…" Kalin paused, not wanting to think what happened to those poor kids "I thought I owned him to continue his job. If I hadn't leaded the Enforcers to the top, those bastards wouldn't have killed Crow's children. Tommy, Mariah and Jake are now leaving with me. I teach them how to duel."_

_ "I see." Yusei said, then he eyed his Duel Runner. "Nice ride, by the way."_

_ "You like it? It's the Infernity Wheel" Kalin's Runner was dark-red with dark-purple flames. They spent the rest of the ride talking and Yusei told Kalin the tale of the Signer and why Roman Goodwin had invited him to Neo Domino city. What Yusei told him about the Dark Signer worried him seriously since his hide out where he, Tommy, Mariah and Jake lived was far from there. That was until someone else on a Duel Runner joined them…_

End of Flashback:

"Who are you? And how do you know our names?" Kalin questioned. As an answer, the newcomer pushed Kalin with his Duel Runner, almost making him loose balance.

"Kalin watch out!" Yusei said as Kalin stood behind. He turned to the unknown man "Who are you? What do you want?"

"I want a duel." the man took off his helmet. "And introductions are not necessary."

"Crow!" Yusei cried out.

"And I come with some extras." Crow raised his arm and purple fire surrounded them. Soon they were inside the geoglyph of the wings. Outside the geoglyph, Kalin drove to a mountain, so he could get a clear look.

"Yusei…" he whispered worried about his bro.

"Get ready for the duel of your life!" Crow laughed like a maniac into the night.

"So you're a Dark Signer, right?" Yusei asked, though he already knew the answer.

**(A.N.: I have a draw of Crow's Dark Signer look on Deviantart. Just go to my Profile to find the link, or search in my gallery. My Deviantart name is orichalcosdark.)**

"Well, duh? You though when you backstabbed me who could get away with it?" Crow asked, hatefully. "Well think again and prepare to duel and die!"

"Looks like I have no choice." Yusei said.

_Duel Mode engaged! Auto-pilot activated!_

"Let's run on my Speed World, old friend." Crow smirked. "And now lemme show you one of my newest friends, Darkwing Gale the Whirlwind. And now that I have a Darkwing on the field, I can bring out Darkwing Bora the Spear."

(Darkwing Gale the Whirlwind ATK: 1300 / DEF: 400)

(Darkwing Bora the Spear ATK: 1700 / DEF: 800)

Both monsters had obvious similarities to Crow's old Blackwing monsters. However, they both had a more fierce and evil look.

"Darkwings, hu?" Yusei muttered.

"The powers of the dark shadows gave my deck a few upgrades." Crow shouted. "Let's see if you have upped your game, too. I set two face downs. It's your move."

(Yusei LP: 4000 / SPC: 1 | Crow LP: 4000 / SPC: 1)

"I summon Shield Warrior, but he won't stick around for long for I sacrifice my warrior to Special Summon Turret Warrior." a monster made of rock and metal appeared. "And since I used its special ability to bring him out, my Shield Warrior's points are transferred to my Turret Warrior."

(Turret Warrior: ATK: 1200 + 800 = 2000 / DEF: 2000 + 1600 = 3600)

"Ah, please. Don't you have anything new? This isn't The Enforcers anymore, Yusei." Crow mocked, not impressed that Yusei's monster out powered his own monsters.

"We'll see about that. Turret Warrior, show him what I mean." Yusei ordered and his monsters began his assault on Crow weakest monster.

"Not so fast, Yusei! I activate my trap Miniaturize." Crow revealed one of his face downs with a delighted expression. "Your monster is about to lose some points. Now he is weaker than my Gale."

(Turret Warrior lv:5 1 = 4; ATK: 2000 – 1000 = 1000 / DEF: 3600)

"And speaking of my monster, let him have it, Gale. Counter-attack!" Crow ordered. The Darkwing was now stronger than Yusei's Warrior. But the Signer had a back-up plan.

"I remove my Shield Warrior in the Graveyard from play. Now, my monster will get to stick around for a while." Yusei said.

The two monsters collided in battle and the Darkwing came out victorious but Turret Warrior managed to survive.

"Too bad, but you still lose points." Crow reminded.

(Yusei LP: 4000 – (1300 – 1000) = 3700)

"Fine then. I end my turn with two face downs. It's up to you Crow." Yusei said upset. He had hoped that Dark Signer powers were the only thing Crow had new.

(Yusei LP: 3700 / SPC: 2 | Crow LP: 4000 / SPC: 2)

"_Knowing Yusei like I do, one of those face downs must be his __Scrap-Iron Scarecrow__. If I ignore it, I'll still be able to destroy Yusei's monster, but the other face down may stop from doing even that."_ Crow thought, but then he looked at his own remaining face-down. "_But fortunately for me, I have a trap of my own to take care of that. But just to make sure…"_

"First I place one face down. Next, Darkwing Gale the Whirlwind, attack Yusei's monster." the monster did as Crow said and as Crow predicted, Yusei reacted with his trademark trap.

"Not so fast, Crow. I activate my Scrap-Iron Scarecrow."

"Not so fast, Yusei." Crow mimicked/taunted. "I activate my Dust Tornado. Now kiss your Scarecrow goodbye, 'cause that thing never scared me."

Yusei's trap card was destroyed and Gale carried on its attack. However, Yusei had another back-up plan.

"I activate my other Trap Defense Draw. Now the damage I take in this turn is reduced to 0 and I get to draw one card." Yusei smiled faintly. At least, his LP would be safe for now. Crow however begged to differ.

"I beg to differ. I activate my third trap Seven Tools of the Bandit. By sacrificing 1000 LP, I get to destroy your trap. Looks like your getting some pretty nasty damage after all, pall." Crow said as his card did its thing.

(Crow LP: 4000 – 1000 = 3000 / SPC: 2 – 1 = 1)

"Oh, no." Yusei said. Gale destroyed Turret Warrior for good, this time.

(Yusei LP: 3700 – (1300 – 1000) = 3400)

The impact of the attack made Yusei's Duel Runner spin into the fire of the geoglyph. This amused Crow to no end.

"Hey Yusei, looks like your game is spinning out of the control! AH! AH! AH!"

"Hang on, bro!" Kalin called out from the mount. Yusei recovered the control of his Duel Runner, but Crow wasn't done with him yet.

"The powers of the Dark Shadows really suite me. When it comes to inflict pain with Direct Damage, Shadow Duels are much more exciting than regular duels. But you don't have to take my word for it, let me show you. Darkwing Bora the Spear, show my good friend what I mean."

Crow other monster flew against Yusei, with its deadly spear pointed at him. Yusei could do nothing but take the attack. The pain was immense. Never before he had belt something like this. There was no way that could be a hologram, even though the fact that Yusei wasn't bleeding said different.

(Yusei LP: 3400 – 1700 = 1700 / SPC: 2 – 1 = 1)

"What's the matter, Yusei? Out of shape?" Crow asked.

"No, thanks for asking." Yusei retorted. He was going to give Crow the pleasure of seeing him squirm.

"That's what friends are for. I set one face down. Your move." Crow said and Yusei drew his card.

(Yusei LP: 1700 / SPC: 2 | Crow LP: 3000 / SPC: 2)

"I play my Speed Spell Overboost. Now I get 4 extra Speed Counters. Just so long my Speed Counters are reduced to 1 in my End Phase." Yusei said and his Duel Runner gained more speed.

(Yusei LP: 1700 / SPC: 2 + 4 = 6)

"Now I activate another Speed Spell, my Monster Reborn. By giving up 4 Speed Counters, I can summon my Turret Warrior back to the field." Yusei fallen monster returned. "Then I summon Turbo Synchron."

(Yusei LP: 1700 / SPC: 6 – 4= 2)

(Turret Warrior ATK: 1200 / DEF: 2000)

(Turbo Synchron; Tuner; lv.1; ATK: 100 / DEF: 500)

"Now I tune my lv. 1 Turbo Synchron with my lv. 5 Turret Warrior for a Synchro Summon." Yusei announced and his monster began the Synchro-summon procedure.

"_Good, the heat is been turned on. Go ahead Yusei, give me your best shot! It'll be far more fun to tear you apart after you gave all for nothing."_ Crow thought maniacally.

"Let's rev it up!" Yusei said as his new monster made an entrance.

(Turbo Warrior ATK: 2500 / DEF: 1500)

"Now, Turbo Warrior destroy Darkwing Bora the Spear." Yusei commanded, but Crow had a counter.

"I activate my trap: Negate Attack. Now not only your attack is negated but your Battle Phase comes to an end." Crow smirked as Turbo Warrior's attack was blocked.

"Fine. I set one face down." Yusei said. Now that is turned ended, it was time to pay the price of Overboost.

(Yusei LP: 1700 / SPC: 1)

(Yusei LP: 1700 / SPC: 2 | Crow LP: 3000 / SPC: 3)

"My move!" Crow said, and his deck began to glow with dark energy. The Dark Signer knew what card was coming. He drew. "I draw my Speed Spell Dark Tuning. With this card, I get to replace a Tuner monster on my field with a Dark-Tuner, so long I gave up two cards from my hand."

"A Dark-Tuner? What is that?" Yusei asked, never had heard the term before. Crow laughed.

"You will see. I release my Darkwing Gale the Whirlwind so I can bring out my Darkwing Vayu the Emblem of Dishonor." the Tuner monster was replaced by a small Winged-Beast, wearing a jacket and sandals.

(Darkwing Vayu the Emblem of Dishonor; Dark-Tuner; lv. 7; ATK: 800 / DEF: 0)

"And Dark Tuning has another effect. It lets me draw a new card and if it the situation allows it, I can use it right away." Crow drew again and smirked. "Jackpot! I activate Speed Spell Tune Up 123. With this card, I can increase my Dark-Tuner's level, depending on the result of the card."

The cad showed three different colored lights: blue, red and yellow. The yellow glowed brighter than the others which give Crow what he needed.

"Perfect! Now Vayu's level increases by 2, making him a level 9 monster now, it's time to bring out my lv.2 Darkwing Fane the Steel Chain. Now everything is set for a Dark Synchro Summon!" Crow gloated.

"Dark Synchro Summon? Just what is that?" Yusei asked. Vayu disintegrated but his level-stars remained. The level-stars penetrated in Fane and two of them consumed his only 2 level-stars.

"What's happening?" Yusei asked.

"My Dark-Tuner is consuming my Fane the Steel Chain, creating negative energy." Crow explained, grinning.

"Negative energy? But that's only theoretical." Yusei retorted.

"The how do you explain this?" Crow retorted back. Fane also disintegrated and seven dark level-stars formed a rotating black ring. Row began to recite. "When the shadows are devoured by even darker shadows, the curtain pulls back to reveal a world without light! I Dark-Synchro Summon Darkwing Armor Tyrant!"

Crow's new monster was similar to Blackwing Armor Master he used to have back in the days of the Enforcers. This monster was clearly its dark version.

(Darkwing Armor Tyrant; Dark-Synchro; lv. -7; ATK: 2500 / DEF: 1500)

"Funny wouldn't you say, pal? Our monsters are even." Crow mused, smirking. It was true; in both ATK and DEF points their Synchros were equal. However, Crow still had his Darkwing Bora the Spear. If Crow attack with his Armor Tyrant and both monsters were destroyed, he could then eliminate Yusei with Bora the Spear. However, if this Darkwing was like Crow's old Blackwing Armor Master Crow wouldn't need to sacrifice it to win.

"Now, I activate his Special ability. By removing him from play, until my End Phase, I can destroy one of your Synchro monsters." Crow smirked "And don't think your Turbo Warrior's ability is gonna save him. This effect cannot be negated by Monster's Effects."

"Then how about my Trap: Divine Wrath!" Yusei revealed his face down, which caught Crow by surprise.

"Oh, damn it!" he cursed.

"You got that right! With this Trap, I can negate the activation of Monster's Effect and destroy that monster!" Yusei announced and Darkwing Armor Tyrant was vanquished. Crow however wasn't all mad.

"Oh, well. No big deal. Since he wasn't destroyed in battle, I will be able to summon it back after my End Phase. Too bad Yusei." Crow mocked. "I end my turn."

And with that, Darkwing Armor Tyrant returned to Crow's side. The two duelists turned a corner, both increasing speed.

(Yusei LP: 1700 / SPC: 3 | Crow LP: 3000 / SPC: 4)

"Now it's my move. First, I set a monster in face down DEF position. Then I'll attack your Darkwing Bora the Spear with my Turbo Warrior."

Yusei's monster attack attack's Crow's, damaging the Dark Signer's LP.

(Crow LP: 3000 – (2500 – 1700) = 2200 / SPC: 4)

"Next, I place 3 face downs. Your move, Crow." Yusei announced.

"Fine then! I summon Darkwing Sirocco the Dawn." Crow said and humanoid monster dressed like a raven showed up.

(Darkwing Sirocco the Dawn ATK: 2000 / DEF: 900)

"Next, I'll use my Darkwing Armor Tyrant's ability. By removing my monster until the End Phase, I can get rid of your Turbo Warrior. This time, nothing will save it." Crow shouted and as Armor Tyrant disappeared, so did Turbo Warrior. "Now it's time to do the same to your defense. Go, Sirroco."

The Darkwing monster flew straight to the face down. When he reached it, the card revealed itself. Yusei smiled while Crow clenched his teeth when the face down monster was revealed. It was a pink small bird appeared running instead of flying.

(Sonic Chick ATK: 300 / DEF: 300)

"In case you have forgotten this card, Crow let me remind you that Sonic Chick can't be destroyed by monsters whose ATK is 1900 or more." Yusei said.

"Fine. I'll catch you next time. I set one face down and end my turn." Crow finished and Darkwing Armor Tyrant returned to him.

(Yusei LP: 1700 / SPC: 4 | Crow LP: 2200 / SPC: 5)

"I'll play the Speed Spell Angel Baton. By discarding one card, I can draw two others. So I dump my Level Warrior." Yusei sent said monster to the Graveyard and closed his eyes before drawing his next cards. '_Please let them be the cards I need_.'

Yusei drew and smiled when he looked at them. Crow saw him smile but gave no importance:

"Crow, it's time I eliminate that Dark-Synchro of yours. I summon my Debris Dragon in ATK."

(Debris Dragon; lv. 4; ATK: 1000 / DEF: 2000)

"And thanks to its Special Ability, I can summon a monster with 500 ATK or less from the Graveyard. So I rescue my Level Warrior." Yusei said and a small sized humanoid monster, dressed like a super-hero showed up and joined the dragon and the chick.

(Level Warrior; lv. 3; ATK: 300 / DEF: 600)

"That's why you discarded Level Warrior. Because you knew you could bring him back with your chibi dragon. Now you're ready to summon your lizard." Crow analyzed Yusei's field, grinning.

"You bet. I tune my Debris Dragon, Sonic Chick and Level Warrior. I Synchro Summon Stardust Dragon."

(Stardust Dragon ATK: 2500 / DEF: 2000)

"Now, I activate one of my Traps: Miracle Locus. Now my Dragon gains 1000 ATK until my End Phase. Plus he can attack twice this turn. You get to draw one card and won't get damage when Stardust attacks." Yusei said and his ace roared as his power increased.

(Stardust Dragon ATK: 2500 + 1000 = 3500 / DEF: 2000)

"Now Stardust Dragon, take out both his monsters! Cosmic Flare!" the white dragon destroyed both Darkwings, leaving Crow with not monsters. "I end my turn."

(Stardust Dragon ATK: 3500 – 800 = 2700 / DEF: 2000)

(Yusei LP: 1700 / SPC: 5 | Crow LP: 2200 / SPC: 6)

"I draw." Crow drew his card and Yusei felt a chill up his spine. Whatever was the card that Crow just added to his hand, his Mark of the Dragon was telling him it was nothing but trouble. Crow smirked when he looked at his card. "It's time to send you to the Netherworld. I reveal my face down trap Darkwing hatchlings! This lets me summon two Darkwing Tokens."

Two small crow-demon-like monsters appeared, trying to escape from the eggs they were hatching.

(Darkwing Token; Winged-Beast Type; lv. ATK: 0 / DEF: 0)

"The time has come for the Army of Shadows to set foot in this World, once again, and begin the 2nd war between the Light and the Darkness! By the power of the Dark Signers, I summon Earthbound Immortal Itzpzpalo!"

The two tokens transformed into two balls of light which joined as one and formed a heart like structure floating in the sky. Inside the geoglyph, hundreds of people appeared, all of them wearing cloaks.

"Who are these guys, Crow?" Yusei asked.

"They used to be the freaks that lived here. But now they're nothing more than food for my monster." Crow grunted, pleased. The people cried out as they turned into spirits that were absorbed into the heart. The heart exploded into a beam of light and a giant pair of black wings with green lines appeared. The creature had no mouth to produce a roar, but the sound of the wind beating in its wings was louder than any roar.

**(A.N.: I don't own the Earthbound Immortal Itzpzpalo. All the Earthbound Immortals on this fict are owned by Raphtil save for Razca. They are all on Deviantart. Just search for Itzpzpalo, the wings Immortal.)**

(Earthbound Immortal Itzpzpalo ATK: 2500 / DEF: 2500)

"My monster can attack you directly and you can't use any Traps, Spells or monster's effects against him." Crow smirked. "But just to make sure, I activate his special ability. By halving its ATK and DEF points every spell and trap card on your field returns to your hand."

"Oh no!" Yusei gasped and his tow face down's were returned to his hand. Now he had nothing beside his Stardust on the field.

(Earthbound Immortal Itzpzpalo ATK: 2500 ÷ 2 = 1250 / DEF: 2500 ÷ 2 = 1250)

"Oh and by the way, did I mentioned my monster gains 500 ATK points for every Winged-Beast monster in my graveyard? And right now I have 7." Crow said.

(Earthbound Immortal Itzpzpalo ATK: 1250 + 7 * 500 = 4750 / DEF: 1250 + 7 * 500 = 4750)

"Earthbound Immortal Itzpzpalo send this Signer into the Shadows!" Crow roared and his behemoth made a dive for Yusei. However, Rex was right about destiny. Yusei's Duel Runner broke down and he fell off, before the Earthbound monster could attack.

**DUEL INTERRUPTED!**

"Yusei!" Kalin urged to his friend, as the geoglyph disappeared. Crow laughed watching Yusei trying to move, though his injuries didn't let him.

"Look at you, hot shot!" Crow mocked. "You should be glad that I took kindly to you during the whole duel. Next time I won't. That it, assuming you have a next time. See ya round!"

With that, Crow took off leaving Kalin to go to Yusei:

"Yusei, are you ok?"

"I've been better…" Yusei mumbled hardly. Then the sound of a helicopter was heard. Kalin looked up and his eyes went wide. Inside the chopper were two known faces:

"Jack Atlas! And Director Goodwin!"

"Why did I had a feeling Yusei would get himself in trouble?" Roman asked himself, exasperated.

**And so it ends our duel. Now I'm gonna put my story into a brief HIATUS until April 2012. Same goes to my Yugioh! 5D's ficts. The only one I'm gonna work for a while is Code: Digimon. I need a little vacation from duels.**


	11. Gathering more troops

**Signer or Dark Signer?**

**Set in different episodes. What if some of the Signers and Dark Signers were different? What if a single change in a detail could change the destiny of some individuals?**

UnderlinedCards' names

**Bold** Author Notes

(in brackets) Life, ATK or DEF points

_Italic _thoughts

_Italic and centered_ transitions

**Hello, I'm back! And so is my fict. But for now, nothing major will happen. Now the Signers will reunite and prepare to go to the Satellite. From this point on, the fict will revolve around the Dark Signers, since we already know what the Signers are up too. This chapter is dedicated to silverhedgehog2009 on Deviantart, who owns the OC of this. This chapter is the beginning of the LeoxOC.**

**Chapter 11: Gathering more troops**

"Why did I had a feeling Yusei who get himself in trouble?" Roman asked himself, exasperated.

"Jack! What's going on here?" Kalin asked.

"No time for chit chat, Kalin." Jack said. Kalin and Jack helped Yusei get into the helicopter.

"I'm coming with you guys!" Kalin insisted. Roman was about to deny that but Jack appealed to Kalin's case.

"Ok, fine." the Head of Sector Security agreed.

_Next day…_

In the BAD, deep down below the ground was the original Ener-D Reactor, home of the Dark Signers. Four of these Dark Signers were gathered in a room, illuminated by five candles. Crow, Riki, Leo and Toby were expecting Rex to join them. The Dark Signer leader had summoned a meeting, earlier. Crow was now bragging on his victory over Yusei. That was until Riki said:

"However, you didn't win, like Rex had predicted. Maybe fate doesn't like Yusei, but it looks like it doesn't like you very much, either."

"You always love to kill joy." Crow muttered to the Dark Signer of the Snake. Riki smirked:

"It's what I do best." Rex entered the room, finishing his conversation. He sat at the table but remained silent. The other Dark Signers didn't say anything. They already knew that Rex never began talking right after everyone is gathered. For some reason he wanted silence for a few minutes before beginning business. After about 3 minutes of seemingly endless silence, another person appeared in the room. No, not a person. It was a condor, though no one seemed intrigued or surprised to see the bird in the room. The animal landed on Rex's cloaked shoulder and transformed into smoke. The smoke entered Rex's body and the Mark of the Condor on his back glowed. A missing feather was added to the glowing mark in the right wing, before it stopped glowing. Then he spoke at last:

"Despite we are already five, we need back-up soldiers. Proper candidates to become new Dark Signer."

"Oh, goody! More annoying friends for us to play with." Riki muttered in his usual grumpy manner. However, Toby caught something that no one else did.

"Rex, I don't get it. I thought that could only be 5 Dark Signers at the time. How can we have more members?"

"As I said, these new candidates are back-up soldiers. They will be turned into Dark Signers once some of us unavoidably fall at the hands of the Signers." Rex said coldly. That made everyone else look at Rex like he was an alien.

"What? Are you saying that some of us will…lose against the Signers?" Leo asked. Rex nodded, which caused different reactions to the others. Crow's face showed only disbelief, Riki and Toby were angered and Leo was worried.

"We lose against those goody-two-shoes? No way!" Crow shouted. Riki also protested, though Rex gave no reply until silent installed again.

"It is inevitable, which is why we need more recruits. Furthermore, all the Earthbound Immortals have to be free, so that they may hail the King of the Netherworld when he arrives to this wretched world." Rex said. "There is a girl been chased by Security in an alley of the city. One of the Immortals is interested in her and the will of the Immortals is law."

"You two, Leo and Riki, go get her. According to what the Immortals told me, she's an old acquaintance of you, Leo."

Everyone else gave Leo a sideways look and the said Dark Signer frowned. An old acquaintance of his? Who could it be?

_Later, in Neo Domino city…_

A girl with blond hair and blue eyes was been dragged by two Security officers out of an alley. The girl name was Sakura and she was about 13 years old but it had an uncommon strength for her age. She kept struggling against her oppressors but to no avail.

"This time, nothing will save you from the Juvenile Facility." one of the men barked at her.

"Hold still, you little brat!" the other snapped at her.

"Or else what?" a young male voice dared. In front of the trio, two massive dogs appeared; both had red-eyes and were growling aggressively. The officers and Sakura were tensed in fear. The dogs ran towards them and the officers flee away. The girl was too petrified to move but surprisingly enough, the dogs ignored her and continued after the officers.

"Nice! But next time, I'm the one doing that." said a young voice oddly familiar to Sakura. Another one replied, one she didn't recognized. Two figures walked from the darkness towards her. Both were wearing dark clothing. One of them, the taller, had brown hair with two long hanks on the front. The other had blue-green hair in a pony-tail. Sakura's eyes went wide when she recognized the latest.

"Leo!" she exclaimed. Leo mimicked her, disbelieving.

"Sakura!" the youngest Dark Signer said. Toby looked from Sakura to his associate and then back to Sakura.

"So, I take you guys already know each other." Toby said. Sakura ignored him and approached Leo, noticing something about him that was definitely different.

"Leo…what happened to your eyes?" she asked, seeing the black that was once white in Leo's eyes.

"It's a long story." Leo mumbled.

**(A.N.: This is silverhedgehog2009's OC. Her name is actually Ashley, but I wanted to give her a more Japanese name. Silverhedgehog2009 has a picture of Ashley(Sakura) and Leo together.)**

_A while later…_

Leo and Toby brought Sakura's to the hiding place, in the pit of the first Ener-D Reactor. They were now walking through the corridors, leading Sakura to a room of her own. During the way, Leo told Sakura everything about the war between the Signers and Dark Signers. Everything except the part when she was to become a Dark Signer. She didn't believe much, even though she witnessed the 'party' Leo, Toby and Riki thrown when they assault the Arcadia Building. What most left her shocked was to know how Leo became a Dark Signer.

"That bastard Sayer killed me. He blasted me through a 27th floor window." Leo said. Sakura covered her mouth with her hands shocked. Leo smirked, nonetheless. "But I had my payback for that."

Sakura didn't think she would like to know what happened to that Sayer guy. Nevertheless, there was something missing that she wanted to ask:

"Then, why am here?" Toby was about to answer but a look from Leo silenced him.

"Because I asked Rex to let me save you. I'll explain later." Leo answered quickly. They arrived at Sakura's room and Leo opened the door.

"Just wait here, ok? I'll explain later." Sakura was a bit hesitant, but Leo gave her a reassuring smile. So far, Leo was the only person she could ever trust, so she entered. Leo closed the door and the two Dark Signers headed to the meeting room.

"Why did you stop me from telling her that we want to recruit her? Soon or later, she will have to know." Toby argued.

"She can't become a Dark Signer until one of us is dead. I want her to feel more at home when the time comes" Leo replied. Toby chose to change the subject a little.

"So, how did you met?"

"When she was 9, her dad had another drunken crisis. She ran away from home and I bumped into her in the street. I took her to our apartment and Luna and I let her stay for a couple days. Then she went away, though I said she could stick around forever." Leo told. "She's been leaving in a more desert part of Neo Domino city, selling newspaper. She put together a deck of her own. Sometimes she came to our house to duel with me and Luna. If there's someone I'm glad I can save is she."

Toby hummed to himself. That last thing Leo said could mean something. But first Toby had to make sure his thinking was right.

"So, you really like her hu?" he asked, trying to not sound suspicious.

"Well, yeah. She's a good friend. The only girl friend I have, besides my sister." Leo sighed. Toby smirked widely.

"So that means you _really_ like her. As in, you have a _crush_ on her."

"What? No way!" Leo said, blushing.

"Tell that to your cheeks, loverboy." Toby teased.

"Stop that, ok! I don't have any crush on her. We're just friends!" Leo protested. A sly voice spoke up, from a corner.

"Yeah, sure. Tell me another one." it was Riki coming from another corridor. He said in his usual mocking mutter of his. "So Leo has a crush on the girl he already knows. How convenient that your _girlfriend_ was the one chosen to join our group. Maybe you two will get married and have tons of Dark Signer children, like in one of those crappy soap operas."

"Yeah, whatever." Leo groaned, tired of talking about his supposed relationship with Sakura. "Anyways, how did you know she was my old friend?"

Riki showed them a small black snake with red markings that was creeping in his harm. The dark-blue haired Dark Signer smirked:

"Let's just say, a little snake tipped me off."

_Meanwhile…_

Akiza was observing Yusei sleeping in his hospital bed. The doctors said he was going to be OK. Nevertheless, the former Black Rose Witch couldn't stop been worried about her friend. Friend? A few days ago, she would say she had no friends. Today, she had a whole bunch of them. Kalin and Luna were watching with her. Jack still had his eyes on Yusei, though he kept himself a little distant.

Roman was thinking to himself what next step would be. With Yusei injured like that, they couldn't go to the Satellite right away. Besides, he had a feeling that even if Yusei recovered physically, he would still have trouble dealing with the fact that one of his old friends was the enemy now. Once again, the Signer of the Head of the Dragon took a card from his deck: Life Stream Dragon.

"_The Dark Signers are more powerful than we suspected."_ the dragon spirit said to Roman.

"_Yes, but the bigger problem is: will Yusei be ready to stand up against Crow a second time?_" Roman asked himself.


	12. Fiend, Dog, Rose and Snake PART I

**Signer or Dark Signer?**

**Set in different episodes. What if some of the Signers and Dark Signers were different? What if a single change in a detail could change the destiny of some individuals?**

Underlined_ – _Cards' names

**Bold** – Author Notes

(in brackets) – Life, ATK or DEF points

_Italic _– thoughts

_Italic and centered_ – transitions

**This episode marks the first tag-team duel. Toby and Riki VS Akiza and Jack. I got inspired in the fanfict 'Six Signers' by Earth Beast in making a tag-team duel.**

**Chapter 12: Fiend, Dog, Rose and Snake PART I**

"It seems the Signers have arrived." – Rex Goodwin, Leader of the Dark Signers said when one of his condors reported back. – "It would be impolite if we didn't give them a good Dark Signer 'hello'."

Only Crow was in the meeting room. Leo was with Sakura still trying to tranquilize her. Toby and Riki were nowhere to be found though Crow had a small idea they were planning something.

"As much as I would love to say hello to my old friend Yusei" – Crow muttered. – "I don't want to spoil the fun when I deal with him tomorrow."

Rex hummed to himself before asking:

"Where are Riki and Toby?"

"I dunno. Though if you ask me, they're up to something." – Crow answered and Rex sniggered.

"Are they now? I have a feeling the Signers will get a 'hello' from us, after all. Go get Leo. We have a tag-team duel to watch."

_Meanwhile, with those 2 Dark Signers…_

"The only thing I don't like about this idea is what Rex will do when he finds out." – Toby said, walking with Riki towards the orphanage where they knew the Signers were.

"You worry too much. Besides, this is gonna be fun. I would be more worried about what Leo will do when he finds out." – Riki retorted. Toby gave him a puzzled look.

"Leo? What does Leo has to…Wait a minute, did you…"

Riki nodded with a grin and Toby shot him a frown:

"You know Leo is gonna lose it when he finds out."

"I know and that's part of the point. Now it's time for our entrance." – Riki gesture and lighting stroke in the sky and the window broke apart.

"Hey what was that?" – Yusei shouted looking at the outside. Both Dark Signers chuckled and took off their hoods.

"Sorry to interrupt your dinner. We were just passing by and wanted to welcome the 5 Signers visiting our domain." – Toby said.

"Of course, we Dark Signers only have one way of saying 'hello'." – Riki completed.

"It's Toby!" – Akiza said.

"And Riki." – Jack muttered. – "Leave them to us. They're after me and Akiza, anyways."

"Wait, if they summon an Immortal, all of them will be sucked into it." – Yusei adverted, looking at the kids, Martha, Trudge, Mina and Kalin.

"Ok, fine." – Akiza responded to the Dark Signers. – "We will duel if you come with us."

"Lead the way, Black Rose." – Toby muttered in venom.

_Far from there…_

Leo, Crow and Rex were on the roof of a damaged building, looking at the four figures down there: Riki, Toby, Akiza and Jack. While Yusei, Roman and Luna stood behind to take everyone to a safe place, Jack and Akiza took Toby and Riki to a safe distance. Then, the 3 Signers would go meet the other 2.

"Let's make this more interesting." – Riki proposed. – "This will be a tag-team duel. Each team begins with 8000 LP. First Jack goes, then Toby goes, then Akiza goes and finally I go. No attacks on the first round, OK?"

"Fine." – Akiza and Jack replied.

"Then allow me to set the field in place." – Riki said, showing his Mark of the Shadows. The geolgyph of the snake appeared around them. All four marks glowed as the Shadow Duel began.

(Jack & Akiza LP: 8000)

(Toby & Riki LP: 8000)

"Time to kick this Duel into overdrive!" – Jack drew his sixth card. – "I play Cost Down so I can directly summon my Strong Wind Dragon. Next I play a face down."

(Strong Wind Dragon ATK: 2400 / DEF: 1000)

"Good, now it's my move." – Toby said, sinisterly. – "I play the field spell Beast Ruling. With this in play, during the Draw Phase the team gets 100 LP points of damage for each Warrior, Beast-Warrior, Spellcaster, Psychic-Type monster they have out. On the other hand, the team gets 100 extra LP points for each monster that isn't of any of those types."

The field changed into a mixture of different environments such as mountains, meadow, ice-cap, jungle, volcanos and desert. Akiza frowned; why would Toby play that card? He knew her deck and Jack's deck didn't have many of those monsters.

"Next, I summon my Outstanding Dog Marron. He may look harmless, but he's preparing for the coming of something big." – Toby said. – "Now, I play my Spell Canine Reinforcement. Since I Normal Summoned a Dog monster this turn, I can Special Summon another one, just so long it's ATK and DEF are weaker than my first dog."

"So you're going to summon an even weaker pup?" – Jack mocked. – "I can't believe a guy with monster like those was chosen to be a Dark Signer."

"You know Atlas, you're as pain in the butt as Riki can be." – Toby commented, earning an angry glance from Riki.

"Don't compare me to him!" – the other Dark Signer said. Toby ignored him and continued his move.

"I use my Canine Reinforcement to Special Summon my Dark Tuner Dark BullDog." – Toby announced. His Dark Tuner was an alien looking dark dog with a chest opened. Inside the monster's chest, a dark core was visible.

"A Dark-Tuner? Yusei told me about those." – Akiza said, worried.

(Outstanding Dog Marron lv.1 ATK: 100 / DEF: 100)

(Dark BullDog lv.8 ATK: 0 /DEF: 0)

"Then you know what happens next, Black Rose." – Toby hissed with a hateful tone. Dark BullDog transformed into eight dark starts. The stars entered Outstanding Dog Marron's body, who whined in pain. The only level-star the little dog had was consumed before the monster itself shattered. Seven dark stars rotated, preparing for the Dark-Synchro Summon. – "When the shadows are devoured by even darker shadows, the curtain pulls back to reveal… a world without light! Come forth Sevurus, the last Cerberus!"

The new monster was a massive dark dog with three heads. Each head possessed two horns, bloodthirsty eyes and was growling aggressively.

(Sevurus, the last Cerberus lv. -7 ATK: 2500 / DEF: 2600)

"Before I end my turn, I place two face downs and leave it to the Black Rose." – Toby finished, shooting a venomous glance at said Signer.

"Fine, I summon Witch of the Black Rose. And since I have no other card on the field, I get to draw another card and show it to you thanks to my Witch." – Akiza drew and smiled; it was just the card she needed. She showed the monster she drew. – "It's my Rose Fairy. And thanks to her special effect, if she is drew because of a card' effect I can summon her right away. Now I tune my lv. 4 Witch of the Black Rose with my lv. 3 Rose Fairy to bring a _real_ Synchro monster. Come on out, Black Rose Dragon!"

The majestic dark-red dragon rose roared proudly, manifestation an aura of deadly beauty. An aura that did not impress the Dark Signers nor their monster.

(Black Rose Dragon ATK: 2400 / DEF: 1800)

"I end my turn with a face down. Now make your move, Dark Signer." – she said, looking at Riki.

"Don't mind if I do." – Riki chuckled when he drew his sixth card. – "I'll start by sacrificing Toby's Sevurus, the last Cerberus."

"What? You can't sacrifice _his _monster." – Jack retorted.

"Actually, he can since I let him." – Toby said. – "Oh, and one more thing: my Dark Synchro counts as _three_ sacrifices, since three heads are better than one. You can guess what's coming, don't you?"

"Oh, no! Not that." – Akiza gasped. The three headed dog transformed into an orb of multi-colored light. The orb rose into the sky and began absorbing dark energy until it saturated and exploded into a beam of light.

"Jackie, say 'hello' to the friend you recently just met: Earthbound Immortal Cuauhcoatl!" – Riki shouted, triumphant. The flames of the geoglyph grew and a long humungous snake with red markings appeared, hissing at the Signers.

"I _really _hate snakes!" – Jack snarled.

"Oh, come on, Jackie. Don't say that, you will hurt my monster's feelings. After all, Yusei is your old friend and _this snake_ is practically his family." – Riki said with a smug smirk.

"What rubbish are you talking about?"

"You mean you don't know." – Toby imitated Riki's grin. – "Yusei's father helped free the Shadow Army."

"What rubbish are you talking about?" – Jack demanded.

"Professor Fudo was the head of the RRD, building the first Ener-D Reactor. He was a pathetic greedy man who only cared about his bank account. He didn't care about the safeguards or any safety precautions, which allowed our leader to sabotage the whole thing." – Toby narrated.

"Then, KA-BOOOOM! There goes Yusei's father and his life's work. Along with a good portion of this trash heap you call city." – Riki finished. – "We know this because our leader, Rex, was there working for the _great Professor_ along with his big brother, one Roman Goodwin!"

"What?" – Akiza shrieked, incredulous.

"Are you saying that Roman is into this too?" – Jack asked.

"As much as I love a good chit-chat, the Netherworld is too anxious to swallow you and so is my monster." – Riki said. – "Even though I can't attack you on my first turn, my Earthbound Immortal as another tricks up his sleeve. I activate Cuauhcoatl's ability: once per turn, my monster can put a Venom Counter on a non-reptile monster on the field. And guess whose gonna get one, Jackie: your Strong Wind Dragon. And you know what happens to monster which have Venom Counters."

The God Snake towering above all of them gazed upon them and fired a red light from its mouth, striking down at the dragon. Jack's monster kneeled down; powering down and so did Jack. When his monster was weakened, so was Jack.

(Strong Wind Dragon: ATK: 2400 – 500 = 1900 / DEF: 1000 – 500 = 500)

"Jack!" – Akiza cried.

"What's the matter, Jackie? Are you tired?" – Riki mocked. Jack growled, getting up.

"I'm fine. Thanks for asking, brat!" – Jack replied. Riki continued like that small talk never happened.

"Next I discard one card to activate my Trap Booster. With this card, I'm gonna activate a trap known as Altar of the Bound Deity." – a tall Inca-like temple raised behind Riki.

_In the top of the building…_

"Altar of the Bound Deity? Isn't that one of your cards, Rex?" – Crow asked.

"It would appear that Riki _borrowed _some of my cards without permition." – Rex muttered, though his face didn't show any anger about it. Leo frowned.

"You know I could have swear Riki didn't have a Trap Booster, too." – then Leo's eyes went wide. – "Hold on a sec!"

Leo took off his deck and shuffled the whole thing. When he was done, his face grew redder of anger:

"That thieve! He stole some of my cards too!"

_Back on the due…_

"For every monster that is in DEF mode, during my Standby Phase, one Earthbound Immortal Counter will be lit. Once I have four of these, well…things will turn even darker for you guys. Now it's your move, Atlas." – Riki ended his turn.

"Hold on a sec Riki." – Toby said. – "I activate one of my face downs: my Call of the Haunted trap. With this, I can bring back my Sevurus."

Toby's Dark Synchro re-appeared with its savage look. One of the heads fixed its gaze onto Jack while the other two were gazing at Akiza.

(Sevurus, the last Cerberus lv. -7 ATK: 2500 / DEF: 2600)

"Good, and since I have a Dragon-type monster out, I'll start by taking that bonus from your Field Spell." – Jack said, as Beast Rulling began to take its effect.

(Jack & Akiza LP: 8000 + 100 = 8100)

"Now I summon my Dark Tinker, in DEF mode. Next, I activate my face down, Dragon Nails." – Jack announced proudly, his dragon equipped with powerful gauntlets.

(Dark Tinker ATK: 1000 / DEF: 1300)

(Strong Wind Dragon ATK: 1900 + 600 = 2500 / DEF: 500)

"Big deal! The only thing you accomplished was to match my monster's power." – Toby dismissed, though Jack smirked at this.

"And that was the point, since my dragon can't be destroyed by monster with the same ATK." – Jack gloated, to which Riki and Toby growled. – "Now let that three-headed mutt have it!"

Strong Wind Dragon and Sevurus battled. The dog was destroyed while the dragon survived. However, Sevurus reappeared, though now he only had two heads.

"Hey, what gives?" – Akiza asked.

"I told you three heads are better than one. My monster can withstand three attacks. Of course, now it has lost a head, it counts has _two _sacrifices, but that a fair price for keeping my pet for a little while." – Toby said. Jack, on the other hand growled at his frustrated success.

"Turn end." – Jack upset announced.

"OK, first my Field Spell kicks in." – Toby said, drawing a card.

(Toby & Riki LP: 8000 + 100 = 8100)

"I activate my other face down trap Zero Gravity!" – Toby announced and every monster changed its Battle Position.

(Strong Wind Dragon DEF: 500)

(Dark Tinker ATK: 1000)

(Sevurus, the last Cerberus DEF: 2600)

(Black Rose Dragon DEF: 1800)

(Earthbound Immortal Cuauhcoatl DEF: 2600)

"Finally, I place one face down and end my turn." – Toby said.

'_Strange, why would he play that Trap. He could have attack with his __Sevurus__ and destroyed my dragon. Either he is afraid of my two face down, or he only wants to make sure when Riki's turn comes, there are as many Earthbound Immortal Counters as possible for that __Altar__. This will be risky, but it may work.'_ – Akiza said to herself, before beginning her turn. – "First, I'll enjoy the bonus from the Field Spell."

(Jack & Akiza LP: 8100 + 100 = 8200)

"I summon my Dark Verger in DEF mode then switch my Black Rose Dragon back into ATK. Now I'll use her effect to switch Sevurus into ATK as well and reduce its power to 0, by removing from play my Rose Fairy."

The spirit of Rose Fairy appeared before Black Rose Dragon and the dragon eat it. Several vines erupted from the plant dragon and captured Toby's monster forcing it into a more offensive position.

(Sevurus, the last Cerberus ATK: 0 / DEF: 2600)

"Now, Black Rose Dragon do your thing. Your monster may just lose another head, but you're still gonna be slammed with damage." – Akiza commanded and her monster attacked Toby's. The two-headed dog was destroyed but reappeared again in no time, though now only one head remained. Severus returned to his DEF mode.

"I activate my Defense Draw. Now I preserve my LP and get to draw a card." – Toby smirked. – "Nice try, Black Rose."

"I'm sorry Jack. I couldn't prepare for Cuaucoatl's next attack." – Akiza apologized. Jack just gave an understanding nod.

"Don't worry." – Jack said, looking at Riki. – "It's me that snake is after."

"Well, allow this _snake_ to begin his turn." – Riki said. – "First things first, I'll collect Beast Rulling's bonus."

(Toby & Riki LP: 8100 + 100 = 8200)

"And now that there are 4 monsters in DEF mode, my Altar of the Bound Deity gains 4 Earthbound Immortal Counters." – the four counters were lit in the altar. – "Though, those Counters won't be put to use right now. Next I use my Immortal's ability to place one venom counter on Black Rose Dragon. Now there are 2 venom counters. That's all for now."

"Is that all?" – Akiza asks, puzzled.

"What? What's the matter with you two? This is a duel, not a child's play. You had plenty of chances to attack us, so why didn't you do it?" – Jack questions.

"We're just warming up, Jackie. Toby and I want to drag our fun out a little more. Though I'm impressed that you're in suck a hurry to go to the Netherworld." – Riki said. Jack just growled in response:

"Whatever. It's my move and time to get a little more power boost."

(Jack & Akiza LP: 8100 + 2 * 100 = 8400)

'_Luck must hate me, today.'_ – Jack though bitterly, looking at his hand. – _'If I had another lv. 2 monster I could summon it and bring out my __Red Dragon Archfiend__. I HATE been helpless.'_

"I switch my Strong Wind Dragon back into ATK mode. I place one face down and that's all for now."

(Strong Wind Dragon ATK: 2500 / DEF: 500)

Then began laughing. His laugh began as a silent snigger evolving into maniac chuckles. Riki didn't seem disturbed by this. Jack and Akiza looked at, the first feeling annoyed and the second worried.

"The four Earthbound Immortal Counters are ablaze! With their power, I can now summon my own Earthbound Immortal!" – Toby shouted in triumph.

"What? But there can't be more than 1 Earthbound on the field!" – Akiza retorted. Riki smirked:

"I beg to differ, pretty girl."

Toby raised his arm and the geoglyph of the snake began to fade away and was replaced by the geoglyph of the dog.


	13. Fiend, Dog, Rose and Snake PART II

**Signer or Dark Signer?**

**Set in different episodes. What if some of the Signers and Dark Signers were different? What if a single change in a detail could change the destiny of some individuals?**

Underlined_ – _Cards' names

**Bold** – Author Notes

(in brackets) – Life, ATK or DEF points

_Italic _– thoughts

_Italic and centered_ – transitions

**The tag-team duel continues. Toby and Riki VS Akiza and Jack. This chapter reveals why Toby and Riki didn't attack before.**

**Chapter 13: Fiend, Dog, Rose and Snake PART II**

Yusei was riding on his Duel Runner with Roman, Luna and Trudge close behind on a Security transport. The three Signers and officer were heading to the where the geoglyph was glowing in the sky.

"Hey, look!" – Luna said, pointing at the geoglyph. The shape began to fade away, though another one was forming in the same place. The geoglyph of the snake was replaced by the geoglyph of the dog.

"Does that mean the duel was lost?" – Trudge asked.

"No, they just changed the field." – Roman said, looking at his glowing mark. – "The duel is not lost."

_With the duel…_

"By the power of the Altar of the Bound Deity, I summon Earthbound Immortal Ccoshobar." – Toby shouted. The Altar shattered and a beam of purple light erupted form the earth and a heart of rock appeared. Cuauhcoatl hissed while it sunk in the fire of the new geoglyph.

"I'm activating my Cuauhcoatl's special effect. I can tribute my Earthbound Immortal whenever I choose to remove the Venom Counters he placed. And for every counter removed, my opponent loses 500 LP." – Riki smirked, sending his ace to the graveyard. Jack and Akiza felt a pain in their hearts when their LP took a great hit. Good news were: their monster's returned to their full power.

(Toby & Riki LP: 8200 + 100 = 8300)

(Black Rose Dragon ATK: 2400 / DEF: 1800)

(Strong Wind Dragon [with Dragon Nails]: ATK: 3000 / DEF: 1000)

(Jack & Akiza LP: 8400 – 2 * 500 = 7400)

"Now come forth mighty beast!" – Toby shouted and Ccoshobar made his entrance, howling. – "Prepare to face the wrath of an Immortal. Attack Atlas!"

(Earthbound Immortal Ccoshobar ATK: 2500 / DEF: 2300)

"Oh, no!" – Akiza cried out. Ccoshobar leaned over approaching Jack. The blond duelist tried to run back, which saved him from been completely crushed by the massive snout of the behemoth dog.

(Jack & Akiza LP: 7400 – 2500 = 4900)

Riki observed Jack's painfully standing up with a delighted glare. Toby however was not through with this, yet. He had saved Akiza for last.

"Now, I activate Ccoshobar's ability. Since I have a Beast-Type monster on the field, other than my Earthbound I can attack again!" – Toby growled in a vengeful ecstasy. – "Now Ccoshobar give Black Rose a piece of my mind!"

The giant dog monster repeated the attack with Akiza who was also forced to evade taking the hit. Akiza was thrown to the debris close by Jack. Both were still alive and standing up but their force was as low as their LP.

(Jack & Akiza LP: 4900 – 2500 = 2400)

"You should be glad we didn't go serious on you two. Otherwise you would have lost the duel long ago! Now you see why I played this Field Spell? Because we wanted to make sure you lasted until we got tired of toying with you. This is just a little entertainment." – Toby remarked. – "I set one face down and end my turn. Your move, Black Rose."

(Jack & Akiza LP: 2400 + 2 * 100 = 2600)

"If I could summon Red Dragon Archfiend I could strike Riki down" – Jack muttered.

'_Hold on! My face down could help Jack's monster in that endeavor.'_ – Akiza thought. – "I play a face down and now is time to return the favor for those Direct Attacks. Black Rose Dragon take out Riki!"

The plant dragon made her move to attack the Dark Signer, but fate was against it.

"Not so fast, Black Rose!" – Toby said. – "I activate Wan Chance to give 4 Wanchance tokens to protect our LP."

Four small dogs, each carrying a party-hat appeared between Riki and Black Rose Dragon. The blow that was meant for the duelist stroke one of the DEF tokens, instead.

"Turn end." – Akiza admitted frustrated.

(Toby & Riki LP: 8300 + 3 * 100 = 8600)

"I play my Hydra Vyper in DEF mode." – Riki summoned a three headed snake. Each head had a different color and looks. – "That's all for now."

(Hydra Vyper ATK: 1800 / DEF: 400)

"Grrr! They're mocking us again." – Jack growled. – "They don't even consider us a real threat."

"Listen Jack. They were only able to pushes into a corner because they're teaming up. The used each other's cards to help them achieve their strategies. We have to do the same if we want to win." – Akiza said. – "You said you wanted to summon your ace. Use my Dark Verger."

"I don't like to rely on others." – Jack replied simply. Akiza frowned and adopted a firing glare:

"Well, if you don't then we're both damned! Though you'll be more than I will. Now use my monster to summon yours, right now!"

"Ok, ok! Sheesh." – Jack finally agreed. He then added mentally. – '_She gets kinda creepy when she gets mad._'

(Jack & Akiza LP: 2600 + 2 * 100 = 2800)

"I tune Dark Tinker(lv.2), Dark Verger (lv.2) and Strong Wind Dragon (lv.4) to bring out the all-powerful Red Dragon Archfiend." – Jack announced as his beast took flight.

"So you managed to bring out your lizard. Big deal!" – Toby dismissed. Riki however begged to differ.

"No, it's actually a _big deal_, Toby. But nothing we can't handle."

"I disagree, Riki." – Akiza said. – "I activate my trap: Synchro Legacy. Now I can target one Synchro Monster and for this turn, that monster gets to attack as many times as monsters that were used to summon it. Now Red Dragon Archfiend gets to attack 3 times."

"Oh, great!" – Riki muttered.

"Good job, Akiza!" – Jack complimented. – "Red Dragon Archfiend Sevurus!"

The dragon destroyed the dog, which this time didn't revive itself. Nevertheless, since the monster was in DEF mode Toby didn't lose any LP.

"Now Archfiend's ability kicks in: since I just destroyed a DEF monster, all other DEF monsters are destroyed."

Riki's three tokens and his Hydra Vyper were destroyed. That left the field of the Dark Signers empty save for Ccoshobar.

"Now for the second attack. Take out Riki!" – Jack commanded and his dragon attacked the Dark Signer directly.

(Toby & Riki LP: 8600 – 3000 = 5600)

"Was that your best shot, Atlas?" – Riki asked trying not to show how much that attack weakened him.

"No, but this will be. For the 3rd and final attack the target is Toby." – Jack said.

"What part of 'Earthbound Immortals can't be targeted by other monsters' don't you understand?" – Toby asked.

"But the target is not your monster. Archfiend show him what I mean." – Jack's dragon dove for the Immortal and passed right through it like Toby's monster was a ghost.

"Hey, what the…" – Toby gasped.

"Attacking your monster was never the plan. The real target of the attack is you! Since Earthbound Immortal can't be targeted by any cards, they can't protect LP either." – Akiza explained.

"How dare you?" – Toby roared. Archfiend now dove for Toby and stroke him with his final attack.

(Toby & Riki LP: 5600 – 3000 = 2600)

"Looks like we're even in LP, now." – Jack said. He gave Akiza a sideways look who nodded. – "I place one face down and end my turn."

(Toby & Riki LP: 2600 + 100 = 2700)

"Oh, good!" – Toby said, standing up. – "Because that was your LAST move! Since I took damage last turn, I can summon my Hell Rottweiler, the Dog Guardna."

(Hell Rottweiler, the Dog Guardna ATK: 1600 / DEF: 2000)

"Since he was summoned by its effect, his ATK is subtracted from your LP." – Toby shouted.

(Jack & Akiza LP: 2800 – 1600 = 1200)

"Now prepare to face your doom!" – Toby roared, though Jack and Akiza didn't seem worried. – "Earthbound Immortal Ccoshobar end this duel and send them to the darkest corner of the Netherworld!"

The Earthbound Immortal was about to unleash its attack, when the flames of the geoglyph disappeared. Ccoshobar sunk into the ground and the monsters disappeared.

"Hey, what gives?" – Riki and Jack asked.

"That's enough, Toby." – a commanding voice announced. Both Dark Signers recognized it right away.

"Rex!" – they both joined their leader, Leo and Crow who had come out of the building from where they were watching the duel. Needless to say it was Rex who stopped the duel.

"Why did you interrupt the duel? We were about to win!" – Toby muttered.

"It is not yet time. Tomorrow is." – Rex said.

Meanwhile, the other 3 Signers arrived at the scene. Jack and Akiza joined them.

"Akiza! Jack! You ok?" – Yusei asked.

"Yeah, we were until that guy stopped the duel." – Jack pointed to the tallest of the five cloaked people.

"The Dark Signers." – Roman said as he and his companions faced their enemies.


	14. We are Signers!

**The Path of the Dark Signers**

**Set in different episodes. What if some of the Signers and Dark Signers were different? What if a single change in a detail could change the destiny of some individuals?**

Underlined_ – _Cards' names

**Bold** – Author Notes

(in brackets) – Life, ATK or DEF points

_Italic – _thoughts

_Italic and centered_ – transitions

**I changed the name of the fict to '**_**The Path of the Dark Signers'**_**. The previous name made it sound like the Signers and Dark Signers switched sides. Now, onto the story: the heroes and bad guys finally meet face to face. The second phase of the Dark Signer War begins.**

**Chapter 14: We are Signers!**

Only two of the Dark Signers have their faces partly covered: the tallest and the shortest. The tallest unknown Dark Signer had dark purple designs while the shortest had white.

"Rex, it has been so long." - Roman said with a neutral expression. Rex pulled off his hood, showing his tattooed face and dark eyes.

"I could say the same, big brother." - the Dark Signer leader.

"Big brother!" - Yusei and Luna gasped.

"So it's true." - Jack said, looking from Rex to Roman. - "You really are brothers."

"A quite dramatic twist typical of a soap-opera, wouldn't you say? Sibling against sibling. And this case is not just applied to Roman and I." - Rex said.

"What do you mean?" - Akiza asked.

"You mean you don't know?" - Toby questioned mockingly. He looked at their youngest member and said. - "Why don't you reveal yourself to the Signers, friend? It's rude to not show our face to our guests."

The white lined Dark Signer pulled off his hood to reveal his face. Luna gasped again. This confirmed Roman's suspicions. It was …

"Leo?"

"That's right. Your bro is now on our team." - Riki smirked.

"Like I said, sibling VS sibling. Fate has finally brought us together. Signers and Dark Signers. Let us meet tomorrow at the Four Stars of Destiny. The end will be decided there." - Rex said. The Dark Signers turned around and began to leave.

"Leo!" - Luna called. Leo looked at her for a second, before turning his back on her.

"If you want answers, come meet me tomorrow." - and so he also went away.

"Hey, don't walk away from us! Let's settle this right here, right now!" - Yusei demanded, to the mist. Rex's voice sounded like it was coming from everywhere.

"We can't do that, because we're not supposed to. Just come to the Four Stars of Destiny."

"Sounds to me like you're scared." - Yusei countered.

"Don't be so impatient, bro. Just come to the place tomorrow and you'll have your duel. Your _last_ duel. I'll be waiting,_ old friend_." - Crow's voice sounded like an echo.

_Later, in the orphanage…_

Everyone regrouped back at the house. Martha got the kids to go to bed. By insistence of everyone, Roman told the whole truth about his brother: when they worker for Dr. Fudo, they travel to the Nazca Lines and how Rex blew up the first Ener-D Reactor.

"And you were planning on tell us this when? Next Christmas?" – Jack asked, sarcastically. Kalin, Yusei, Jack and Akiza were listening. Mina and Trudge stood more on the sidelines. Luna was practically drifting, still unable to accept that her brother was a Dark Signer.

"When the time was right. The last thing we need was too much information distracting us." – Roman replied.

"But the fact remains that you've hide this for 2 years. It's hard to trust you, knowing this." – Yusei commented. – "What's your aim, anyway?"

"I just want to make sure this world won't pay for my brothers' mistakes." – Roman answered simply.

"Let's just hope the world won't pay for _your_ mistakes, either." – Jack mumbled under his breath, though he knew everyone heard that.

"Anyways, what did Rex meant by 'the Four Stars of Destiny'?" – Akiza asked, believing it was best to change the subject.

"My guess is that he's referring to the four control units that were built to maintain the original Reactor." – Roman said.

"Well, aren't you smart?" – Kalin said, snide. Roman nodded at Mina and she showed a hologram of five different locations in the Satellite, marked by blips. One was the giant crater that remained after the Zero Reverse. The other four were scattered around it, each in a different direction: North, South, East and West.

"According to the reports, they were the first part of the system to break when the Reactor reacted. During development, each individual control unit went by a codename" – Mina said and the four geoglyphs appeared, each corresponding to one of the outer blips – "Itzpzpalo, Ccoshobar, Huacachina Kon, Cuauhcoatl. In the Quechan language, they mean: the Wings, the Dog, the Heron, and the Snake."

"Those are the Nazca lines that disappeared!" - Akiza noted.

"What about Rex's mark?" – Luna asked, speaking for the first time.

"Rex bears the Mark of Condor on his back. That mark represents the Reactor itself. Its codename is Wiraqocha Rasca." – Roman said. – "In order to reverse the Reactor and stop the flow of negative energy, we have to go to each of those control units and turn them on."

"And how're we supposed to turn on these control units?" – Yusei asked.

"Our dragon cards are the answer. Those were the cards that were used to power up each of the control units. We have to enter the towers and place our cards in the control panel." – Roman answered.

"How do you know all of this?" - Yusei asked.

"Because Professor Fudo entrusted those cards to Director Goodwin." – Mina said.

"Hold on, if _you_" – Jack faced Roman. – "had the cards, how did we ended up getting them?"

"I guess you could say that I decided to release the cards into the wild. I wanted to test the powers of destiny. I wanted to see if they would travel from duelist to duelist, until they ended up on the hands of the Signers." – Roman said.

"Well, since Roman seems to know _so much_ about destiny, he must know how this whole thing is gonna turn out, right?" - Jack asked tetchy, looking at everyone.

"I'm not a fortune teller, Jack. There's no telling what will happen. I just know what must be done. The fate of the world has been put into our hands. We are Signers!" – Roman said. Mina showed the holographic map once again with the five blips. Roman pointed at each different blip as he spoke.

"The location of the four control stations and Reactor, Wings, Heron, Dog, Snake and Condor are pretty spread out."

"So what's the plan? Hit all these units up one by one?" – Trudge asked.

"That would be a huge waste of time! Besides a duel is one-on-one; we're gonna have to split up and go solo." - Jack half-growls and shows his Mark of the Dragon. - "Five Signers, five Dark Signers, four control stations plus one main reactor is a no-brainer! Who knows? Maybe this is more of Roman's _destiny_ at work."

"I hate to admit it but Jack might have a point." - Kalin said.

"But I though as Signers we're supposed to be a team!" – Luna countered.

"We're still a team, Luna. All of us. Even if we're apart, we're still fighting for the same thing." - Yusei supported and Akiza gave her a smile.

"...I guess you're right." – Luna sighed. The truth was that she didn't want to face Leo, especially not alone.

"So, who's going where?" – Trudge asked.

"Crow wants to settle the score with me, so I'll go to the Wings station." - Yusei decides in a blink of an eye.

"The Dog is Toby's mark; I'll head over to that station." - Akiza said, equally confident.

"That viper Riki is after my scalp. I'll head to the station of the Snake." – Jack smirks.

"Just like Rex said, this is sibling VS sibling. I'll go to the Reactor, alone." – Roman said, giving a look at Mina and Trudge that meant he didn't want any of them to argue. Luna is thinking of the Heron geoglyph and the Dark Signer who bears its mark: her brother. The other Signer looked at her, expecting an answer. This was supposed to be an all-go or none-goes. They had all to agree on what to do. Luna made up her mind.

"Leo is the Heron and the only one left...so, I'll go to the Heron station." - Luna said. It was decided; Trudge would take Luna to her destination. Mina would escort Akiza to hers. Roman, Yusei and Jack would travel to the battle field by themselves. Kalin choose to stay in home and watching his kids. When he learnt of the Dark Signers, Kalin had moved his kids to Martha's orphanage for the time being.

"Guess I'm stuck at home watching the kids. I hope you all have fun saving the world." – the light blue-haired duelist said.

"We will." - Yusei replied, dead serious. – "Tomorrow we save our home!"

_Next day's morning…_

Luna was already outside, looking at the sun coming up. She couldn't sleep for most of the night. Her thoughts drifted to the fight ahead and to her opponent. In these moments, she asked for her most trusty companions: Ancient Fairy Dragon and Regulus. Luna closed her eyes and joined her hands, like praying.

"_Ancient Fairy Dragon? Regulus? Are you there?_" – Luna asked.

"_I am, Luna._" – the dragoness whispered. This time, only Ancient Fairy Dragon appeared.

"_Ancient Fairy Dragon, I don't know what to do. Leo was always the one giving me strength. Without him, I can do nothing. How am I supposed to fight him?"_ – Luna asked.

"_You can fight him, Luna. There's a reason why you have that mark on your arm. The Crimson Dragon knows you can do this. And…I know you don't like the idea of fighting your own brother, but that is meant to be. Your brother Leo was meant to be a Dark Signer; the Morphtronic machines that were capturing the Duel Spirits returned and this time, they're making a war against us. Regulus is fighting and soon I will have to, as well."_ – Ancient Fairy Dragon sighed sadly. – "_We all will have to battle, soon or later. I'm sorry Luna."_

With this, the dragon spirit disappeared, leaving the girl with no much less doubts than she had. A few minutes later, the door opened and Akiza exited the orphanage.

"Oh, there you are. You weren't in your bed." – the psychic duelist said.

"I couldn't sleep much." – Luna shrugged. Akiza noticed the little Signer's crestfallen look and approached her.

"You still have doubts about fighting your brother, right?" - Luna nodded.

"I understand it's hard, but defeating him might be the only way to bring him back." – Akiza reminded her.

"I don't think I have the strength to duel Leo. And even if I had, you heard what Roman said; the Dark Signers might be beyond saving. That means if I win, Leo could be gone forever because of me." – Luna whined silently.

"I know Luna, but there's only one way to solve this. Besides, you think what the Dark Signers are doing is right? We have to stop them, if we want our friends and family to be safe. I'm not as good as Yusei in this whole protecting-those-you-love thing, but I'm standing with him and the others against the Dark Signers. Remember what Yusei said, Luna; _Even if we're apart, we're still fighting for the same thing_. We are Signers!" – Akiza said giving Luna a smile that made her feel a bit better.

"Thanks for the pep talk." – Luna gave her a ghost of a smile

_A while later…_

The heroes were all set and ready to go. Luna was going with Trudge, Akiza with Mina. Roman would drive his Security patrol car to the crater of the original Ener-D Reactor. Yusei and Jack ridded on their Duel Runners. Kalin and Martha were by the door, saying goodbye to his friends.

"Have fun saving the world." – Kalin grinned.

"And don't be late for dinner." – Martha said. Luna felt awkward at how easy those two took the whole saving-the-world thing. The heroes took off, heading to their destination. Jack headed for North, where the tower of the Snake was.

"_Just you wait, Riki. I'm coming for you, you snake!"_ – the blond thought.

===scene break===

Jack arrived at the solitaire tower, in the top of a mountain. There was no grass, no trees, no weeds in that place. The only thing that wasn't made of dirt or rock was the tower. Jack stopped by the control station.

"Hey, Riki! Come on out! I know you're here." – Jack called out. Slowly but surely, the sound of the Duel Runner begin filling the air. But it wasn't Jack's. From behind the tower, a dark red small Duel Runner shaped like a snake came, slowing down as it approached Jack. The rider took off his helmet, revealing to be Riki.

"Hello, Jackie! Ready for round 2?" – Riki smirked, raising his left arm and summoning the geoglyph of the snake. The Shadow Duel had begun!

**Du-dun! The Signers face the Dark Signers, once again. And this time, it's for good. You want the duel Jack VS Riki #2 to be two chapters or just one chapter long?**


	15. Sharp as a Snake's tooth PART I

**The Path of the Dark Signers**

Underlined_ – _Cards' names

**Bold** – Author Notes

(in brackets) – Life, ATK or DEF points

_Italic – _thoughts

_Italic and centered_ – transitions

**The first battle begins! Jack VS Riki duel #2! Will Jack survive this poisonous match? Or will Riki gets his pay back and give a victory to the Dark Signers?**

**Chapter 15: Sharp as a Snake's tooth PART I**

Ridding on his Duel Runner, Yusei looked to the North sky. The geoglyph of the Snake appeared and his Mark of the Tail was burning. Needless to say, Jack had arrived at his destination.

"_Jack…I hope you don't underestimate your opponent. That's what usually gets you in trouble._" – with that wish in mind, Yusei continued heading West, to the station of the Wings and to Crow.

_Meanwhile, in the old Ener-D Reactor…_

Rex was watching the four Signers heading to the control towers. Only one of them had arrived. Jack Atlas and Riki were beginning their Shadow Duel. Even though he knew Riki's strategy was powerful, he already knew the outcome of that duel, just like he knew the outcomes of the others four duels. It was actually quite amusing that some of his companions were doomed to failure and they don't even know.

"Well, enjoy your fun Riki." – Rex wished to his fellow Dark Signer.

_Back in the geoglyph of the Snake…_

"I see you got yourself a new toy. Good for you, snake." – Jack complimented sarcastically. Riki's Duel Runner was smaller than most Duel Runner Jack had ever seen. Though that didn't upset Riki at all.

"Thanks, Jackie! Now let's begin our Shadow Duel, shall we? In Speed World. Since you're my honor guest, I'll let you start." – Riki said. Both duelist rided through the geoglyph of the snake.

(Jack LP: 4000 / SPC: 0 | Riki LP: 4000 / SPC: 0)

"My pleasure! I summon Twin-Sword Marauder in ATK. Next I set one card face down. That's all for now." – Jack said, then he thought. – "_I just don't get it, why would he chose a Turbo Duel? In this, he can't use his __Venom Swamp__ and therefore, his Venom-Counter will be useless."_

(Twin-Sword Marauder ATK: 1600 / DEF: 1000)

(Jack LP: 4000 / SPC: 1 | Riki LP: 4000 / SPC: 1)

"Then allow me. I summon my Iron Chain Snake." – Riki said and a snake, whose body was shaped like a chain, appeared, sliding by the Dark Signer's side. – "Next, I'll use its special ability. By equipping your monster with mine, Twin-Sword Marauder loses 800 ATK and DEF."

(Twin-Sword Marauder ATK: 1600 – 800 = 800 / DEF: 1000 – 800 = 200)

"I don't believe this! My swordsman is almost out of points." – Jack said.

"I'm not done, yet. I play my Speed Spell – Trap Booster. By removing a Speed Counter, I can activate a Trap right now. And I choose a very special one: Minuteman Enforcers." – Riki grinned. – "_The first Trap for my combo is set and ready to go."_

(Jack LP: 4000 / SPC: 1 | Riki LP: 4000 / SPC: 1 – 1 = 0)

"With this Trap in play, I can make additional Normal Summons every turn. However, there's a catch: the Special Effects are cancelled and the ATK and DEF are divided by the number of monsters Normal Summoned. A small price to pay."

"Hold on! If you do that, your snakes won't be able to place Venom Counters on my monster." – Jack deduced. – "I knew there was something off. You have another strategy."

"You're as sharp as a snake's tooth, Jackie. But you'll find it out, soon enough." – Riki smirked. – "I use my Trap to summon Venom Snake and Venom Viper."

(Venom Snake ATK: 1200 ÷ 2 = 600 / DEF: 600 ÷ 2 = 300)

(Venom Viper ATK: 1800 ÷ 2 = 900 / DEF: 1000 ÷ 2 = 500)

"Why would you bother to summon two monsters if you let them so weak?" – Jack asked. – "Even if they can destroy my monster, they're a minor threat with so few ATK points."

"We'll see. Venom Viper attack his Twin-Sword Marauder." – Riki demanded and the viper destroyed Jack's swordsman. With it, the equipped Iron Chain Snake was also destroyed. – "Now my Iron Chain Snake's secondary ability activates: since the monster my snake was equipped to just bite the dust, you must send from the Deck to the graveyard the same number of cards as its level. And if I'm not mistaken, your Twin-Sword Marauder was a level 4 monster."

"Fine, whatever." – Jack growled. He drew 4 cards from his deck and sent them to the graveyard and the damage from the attack was induced.

(Jack LP: 4000 – (900 – 800) = 3900 / SPC: 1)

"Your turn, Venom Snake. Strike him directly!" – Riki demanded and Jack prepared for the pain. He had already experienced how real the damage was in a Shadow Duel.

(Jack LP: 3900 – 600 = 3300 / SPC: 1)

"I set one face down and end my turn." – Riki said, grinning. He may have not inflicted too much damage, but his plan was going on smoothly. – "_The second trap is set. Just you try to render me defenseless and you'll see what happens, Jackie."_

(Jack LP: 3300 / SPC: 2 | Riki LP: 4000 / SPC: 1)

"Alright, it's time to teach you a lesson, kid. I Special Summon my Vice Dragon from my hand, by halving its ATK and DEF." – Jack's dragon roared - "Next summon Dark Resonator."

(Dark Resonator; lv. 3; Tuner; ATK: 1300 / DEF: 300)

(Vice Dragon; lv. 5; ATK: 2000 ÷ 2 = 1000 / DEF: 2400 ÷ 2 = 1200)

"Now it's to Synchro Summon!" – Jack urged.

"Like I couldn't see that coming." – Riki muttered, not worried. The two monster began the whole Synchro Summoning procedure and from the light, a new greater monster made its entrance.

"Come forth, Red Dragon Archfiend." – Jack called out and his Signer Dragon flew right above him. – "As much as I would love to attack you and put a major dent in your LP, I have a better idea to render you defenseless. You'll regret using those wimp snakes as monsters. I reveal my trap Proof of Powerlessness. Since I have level 8 monster, I can destroy all of your monsters whose level is beneath 6. Which means you can kiss your snakes goodbye."

The trap did its effect and both Venom Snake and Venom Viper were annihilated. Jack, however, did not spot Riki's grin.

"The good news for you is that I can't attack this turn, so…"

"Don't get carried away, Atlas." – Riki warned, as he flipped his face down. – "I activate a trap of my own: Snake Egg. Since you destroyed two of my Venom monsters, I can now summon two Venom tokens. And since my Trap is a Continuous Trap, every time you strike down one of my monster, another Token will take its place."

(Venom Token ATK: 0 / DEF: 0)

"And by the way, I can't take any damage from battles that involve my Tokens. So much for _rendering me defenseless_." – Riki chuckled. Jack was furious that his strategy was foiled, but still something didn't add up in this.

"Ok, what's your game? One thing is avoiding losing LP, but this makes no sense. From the beginning, you've made your monsters weaker and weaker. Now you even replaced them with tokens that have no value in battle. So what's the deal?" – Jack growled. Riki gave him an emotionless look.

"It's all part of my strategy. Though it's funny you're so confused about it. What I'm doing to my monsters is no different of what you've done to me." – Riki answered.

"What are you blabbering about?" – Jack asked. Riki eyes focused on something else. Like he wasn't really seeing what was around him.

"As I told you, thanks to your insistence in dueling Yusei, the Crimson Dragon appeared and killed me and my uncle. That was the night I was reborn as a Dark Signer." – Riki's voice hardened when he said those words, but his gaze remained unfocused. – "Even though we're not dead, we Dark Signers aren't really alive; we're undead. Mere shadows of our former selves that were once our lives. Empty shells, so to speak."

Riki then looked at the tokens he had on the field and sighed sadly:

"Just like those tokens are what remain of my previous monsters, I am what remain of my old mortal self." – he then chuckled bitterly. – "It's actually kinda funny. Before I died, I had all the choices I could ever want, and no power at all. Now I have all the power I could ever want, and no choices at all."

The Dark Signer finally looked at the Signer again. His eyes were burning with hatred.

"I and owe it all to you, Jack Atlas!" – Riki hissed like a snake. His Mark of the Shadows burned brighter, his anger increasing its power.

"Are you done?" – Jack questioned sarcastically. – "I admit that your uncle dying and you having your life taken away from you isn't something you forget over night, but the bottom line is that I didn't know. It may be my fault but how could I have guessed what would have happened? You're just mad at everything because of what happened to you, so you want someone to blame."

"Just finish your move, Atlas." – Riki muttered in a silent, but deadly tone.

"Fine, I set two face downs. Your move." – Jack announced.

(Jack LP: 3300 / SPC: 3 | Riki LP: 4000 / SPC: 2)

"I sacrifice both my Tokens to bring out my Venom Boa. Also, I summon my Venom Serpent. But since I just Normal Summoned twice, my monster get their power cut in half, thanks to my Minuteman Enforcers." – Riki explained.

(Venom Serpent ATK: 1000 ÷ 2 = 500 / DEF: 800 ÷ 2 = 400)

(Venom Boa ATK: 1600 ÷ 2 = 800 / DEF: 1200 ÷ 2 = 600)

"Now it's time for some action. Venom Boa attack his Red Dragon Archfiend." – Riki commanded and his monster did so.

"Can't you do math? My dragon is too strong. Counter-attack, Archfiend!" – Jack's monster smite the attacking snake with one blow.

(Riki LP: 4000 – (3000 – 800) = 1800 / SPC: 2 – 2 = 0)

"What were you thinking? You thought you could take on my dragon with such a weak monster? All you did was hurt yourself." – Jack smirked. Riki however was not unpleased. – "_Why did he made that move? First he summons as many monsters as possible, leaving them weak in the process. Now he's sending them straight to the graveyard…Hold on!"_

Jack remembered the last time he dueled Riki. Jack had trouble dealing with a monster, before Riki summoned his Immortal.

"_Could he be trying to summon __Vennominon__?!"_ – Jack gave a hard look at Riki. – "_With the monsters he already has in his graveyard, that thing will have 3000 ATK. If he sends another monster to his graveyard, not even my __Tyrant Wing__ face-down will be of any use to me."_

"Now that one of my monsters has been destroyed, I get another token." – Riki said, as a new Venom Token joined Venom Serpent. – "I now place three face downs and leave it to you."

"_Every Trap is in place, now. Two of which I need to complete me strategy and the third one as a back-up plan. If a problem happens I can use __Mirror Force__ to save my LP."_ – Riki thought.

"_Now he has his Spell and Trap Zone completely filled. If I make this attack through, I'll win the duel. But, on any rate, I should take down that __Snake Egg__ Trap, just to make sure_." – Jack took a quick look at his hand and grinned. – "_Luckily, I have the card to do just that."_

(Jack LP: 3300 / SPC: 4 | Riki LP: 1800 / SPC: 1)

"My move and I'll start by summoning Trap Eater, in DEF. And I think I'll feed your Snake Egg Trap to him." – Jack smiled as his newly summoned monster literally devoured Riki's Trap. – "No more tokens for you, snake."

Riki gave him a 'see if I care' look.

(Trap Eater; lv. 4; Tuner; ATK: 1900 / DEF: 1600)

"Time to battle! Red Dragon Archfiend destroy his Venom Serpent." – Jack commanded. Riki smirked.

"Reveal Trap card: Mirror Force." – Riki shouted. – "I'll send your blow right back at your monsters."

And so it happened. Archfiend's fire was been re-directed at Jack's field. Jack smirked back at Riki.

"I think not. Reveal Trap card: Negate Attack!" – Jack shouted and the blast disappeared. – "I place two face downs. With that, I end my turn."

Then the unexpected happened: Riki started to laugh. His laugh increased in tone by the second. It was a mocking laugh or an amused laugh. It was a victorious laugh.

"Where's the joke, snake?" – Jack asked aggravated.

"Looks like I won this duel." – Riki smirked.

"You're bluffing." – Jack retorted. Riki said nothing and began his turn.

(Jack LP: 3300 / SPC: 5 | Riki LP: 1800 / SPC: 2)

"Everything is in place. It's time to summon my most powerful beast, after my Earthbound Immortal." – Riki announced, triumphant.

"I knew it! So, that' why you were sending monster to the Graveyard, on purpose. You just wanted to power up you Vennominon!" – Jack shouted.

"Well, summoning _him_ is only _part_ of the plan. You see, I have another Venom monster even more powerful than Vennominon, the King of Poisonous Snakes. One that is almost as dangerous as Cuauhcoatl." – Riki said, which actually worried Jack. – "I sacrifice both my remaining Venom Token and Venom Serpent, to bring out Vennominon, the King of Poisonous Snakes."

(Vennominon, the King of Poisonous Snakes ATK: 4000 / DEF: 4000)

"With 8 reptiles in my Graveyard, my King of Poisonous Snakes could easily take on your lizard. But prefer to stick with my plan."

"And what plan might that be?" – Jack questioned, but the Dark Signer didn't answer.

"I activate on of my face downs; the Trap Raigeki Break. With this, I discard one card and get to destroy a monsters on the field. And that monster is Vennominon, the King of Poisonous Snakes." – Riki said and his monster was annihilated.

"You destroyed your only monster?" – Jack asked, confused.

"I have one face down left and for it to work, I need to be rid of Vennominon. Prepare yourself Jack Atlas. The shadows of the Netherworld await!"

**Hooooo! What Trap could Riki have that is so destructive? Find out in the next chapter.**


	16. Sharp as a Snake's tooth PART II

**The Path of the Dark Signers**

**Set in different episodes. What if some of the Signers and Dark Signers were different? What if a single change in a detail could change the destiny of some individuals?**

Underlined_ – _Cards' names

**Bold** – Author Notes

(in brackets) – Life, ATK or DEF points

_Italic – _thoughts

_Italic and centered_ – transitions

**We finally see Riki's battle strategy uncovered. What monster does he have that is almost as powerful as an Earthbound Immortal?**

**Chapter 16: Sharp as a Snake's tooth PART II**

"If you're so confident that I'm finished, then play the card, already." – Jack muttered. Riki was about to reveal the strategy he had been cooking up since the beginning of the duel. Jack had both Red Dragon Archfiend (ATK: 3000) and Trap Eater (DEF: 1600). Along with 4 facedown traps: Tyrant Wing, Cosmic Blast, Tuning Chance and Crimson Fire.

Riki on the other hand had no monster and just two card in the Spell and Trap zone: his Minuteman Enforcers trap and a face down he was about to flip up. Many people would think the Dark Signer was in disadvantage; Jack didn't let that fool him.

"Fine." – Riki revealed his other trap. – "I activate Rise of the Snake Deity. This card can only be activated if Vennominon was destroyed in means that don't involve a battle, I can special summon his goddess. Come forth, Vennominaga, the Deity of Poisonous Snakes!"

The trap transformed into a beam of red and blue light, which opened a large whole in the ground. The big dark blue snake came out of the whole. Another snake of equal proportions appeared. It didn't take long to see that the two snakes were actually the arms of a whole semi-humanoid monster. From the waist down, Vennominaga's body was a snake's tail. The face had two big red eyes like a snake's. Each hair was a viper, hissing at Jack's monsters. Jack's grimaced at the sight of the new monster.

"That's the goddess of snakes, for you. After this duel I'm gonna need a lot of therapy."

"Sorry Jackie, but there's no therapy in the Netherworld. But enough chit-chat." – Riki grinned. – "Just like Vennominon, Vennominaga's ATK and DEF are determined by the number of Reptile-Type monsters in my Graveyard. Since I have 9, you do the math."

(Vennominaga, the Deity of Poisonous Snakes: ATK: 9 * 500 = 4500 / DEF: 9 * 500 = 4500)

"Then, what makes her more powerful than Vennominon?" – Jack asked.

"Vennominaga cannot be targeted or affected by Spells, Traps or Monster's effects. Plus, she gets a little gift, every time she inflicts damage to my opponent. Now it's show time, Vennominaga. Destroy his Signer Dragon."

Vennominaga's snake hands unleashed a torrent of acid venom which consumed Jack's dragon. The Signer growled in anger.

(Jack LP: 3300 – (4500 – 3000) = 1800 / SPC: 5 – 1 = 4)

Then, an orb of blue and red light appeared, floating above Vennominaga's head.

"What's that?" – Jack questioned.

"That is a Hyper-Venom Counter. This is the gift I was talking about. Every time Vennominaga inflicts you with damage, she gets one of these counters. When she has three of them, I automatically win the duel." – Riki smirked.

"So, if she deals damage three times, I lose and she can only be destroyed in battle by a stronger monster, huh?" – Jack grinned. – "Well, then I just have to smash _you_ instead, Riki. I activate my face down trap: Cosmic Blast. Since you destroyed my dragon, you know take damage equal to its ATK. And with 1800 LP left, you won't survive this blow."

"Darn it!" – Riki cursed.

"You got that right. Go Cosmic Blast!" – Jack commanded.

"Not so fast, Jackie. From my hand, I activate the trap Poisonous Medicine. By banishing this trap, along with every other trap and spell I have on the field, I get 300 LP for every Reptile-Type monster in my Graveyard. So I remove Minuteman Enforcers and Poisonous Medicine."

(Riki LP: 1800 + 9 * 300 – 3000 = 4500 – 3000 = 1500 / SPC: 3 – 3 = 0)

"That was close. I set two face downs and leave it to you." – Riki said.

(Jack LP: 1800 / SPC: 5 | Riki LP: 1500 / SPC: 1)

"I activate my Tuning Chance trap."

"What's that?" – Riki asked.

"It's a very handy card. It allows me to move my fallen Red Dragon Archfiend back to my Extra Deck. Plus, it lets me summon a Tuner or Non-tuner, depending if I already have one of those types of monsters on the field. Since my Trap-Eater is a Tuner, I can Special Summon a Non-tuner. And I think my Twin-Shield Defender will do just fine." – Jack explained and said monster appeared.

(Twin-Shield Defender; lv.4; ATK: 700 / DEF: 1600)

"Oh, I see where this is going." – Riki rolled his eyes. – "You're planning to bring back your Signer Dragon. But come on, Jackie, you know Archfiend can't touch my Vennominaga."

"I've told you, my target is you, not your Medusa." – Jack replied with a smirk. Riki quirked an eyebrow.

"Next, I Normal Summon Magic Hole Golem in DEF." – Jack called out.

(Magic Hole Golem ATK: 0 / DEF: 2000)

"What's that monster for?" – Riki asked.

"You'll find out soon enough. I now use my level 4 Trap-Eater and my level 4 Twin-Shield Defender to Synchro Summon the ultimate Red Dragon Archfiend." – Jack's monster roared menacingly. Vennominaga hissed back at it. – "And now I activate Magic Hole Golem's special ability. I cut my Archfiend's ATK in half until the End Phase so it can attack you directly."

"So that was your plan." – Riki concluded.

"That's right. This duel is over." – Jack gloated.

(Red Dragon Archfiend ATK: 3000 ÷ 2 = 1500 / DEF: 2000)

The dragon prepared its fire punch but Riki wasn't finished just yet.

"I activate my trap Divine Wind. Now the blow is redirected back at you and doubled. Prepare to be wiped out by your own monster." – Riki laughed – "Looks like you're the one who's finished."

Red Dragon Archfiend turned back to Jack, its strength doubling.

(Red Dragon Archfiend ATK: 2 * 1500 = 3000 / DEF: 2000)

"Guess again, Dark Signer! I activate my own trap Crimson Fire! Since I have Archfiend out, I can redirect that blow back at you, with the strength doubled, again. So you now take 6000 points of damage." – Jack laughed, triumphant.

"I think not, I activate Defense Draw which reduces the damage to 0 and lets me draw one card." – Riki said. Archfiend stopped the attack and returned to Jack's side.

"I'll get you yet, snake." – Jack muttered, setting on face down.

(Jack LP: 1800 / SPC: 6 | Riki LP: 1500 / SPC: 2)

"_Alright, he has two face downs. If I had to guess, one of them may be used to block attacks, since he knows __Vennominaga__ can't be destroyed, except in battle. So the traps are harmless…unless one of them increases __Archfiend__'s points."_ – Riki deduced. – "_Better go and attack_. _Even if __Vennominaga__ gets destroyed, she'll be useful, even in the graveyard"_

"Vennominaga, attack!" – Riki commanded.

"I activate Synchro Deflector. When a Synchro is target of an attack, the attack is cancelled and I can destroy one of your monsters." – Jack countered.

"Vennominaga can't be destroyed by Traps." – Riki reminded, passionlessly.

"I know, but your attack was cancelled and that was my plan." – Jack replied. Riki carried on:

"I play my Speed Spell – Overboost to get me 4 extra Speed Counters, just so long I only have 1 left, by the End Phase."

(Riki LP: 1500 / SPC: 2 + 4 = 6)

"Next I pay 5 Speed Counters to activate my Speed Spell – Fair Play." – Riki said.

(Riki LP: 1500 / SPC: 6 - 5 = 1)

"Now, both our monsters are forced to battle again. Only this time, their ATK are halved until the End Phase. Also they can't be destroyed during this Battle Phase. You know what that means, Jackie?" – Riki asked in a mocking grin.

"It means that you'll get another chance to inflict damage to me." – Jack muttered.

"You bet! Time for battle." – Riki called out.

(Vennominaga, the Deity of Poisonous Snakes ATK: 4500 ÷ 2 = 2250)

(Red Dragon Archfiend ATK: 3000 ÷ 2 = 1500)

Both the snake goddess and the feral dragon moved to battle.

"I don't think so. I activate my trap Tyrant Wing!" – Jack said and Archfiend's wings grew in size and shone in white light. – "By equipping it to my dragon, I give it 400 extra ATK points. I may not be able to win this battle, but I can spare some damage."

(Red Dragon Archfiend ATK: 1500 + 400 = 1900)

Both monsters collided and Vennominaga's strike was victorious, though Archfiend remained on the field.

(Jack LP: 1800 – (2250 – 1900) = 1450 / SPC: 6)

A second Hyper-Venom Counter appeared, floating above Vennominaga.

"That makes two of them. When Vennominaga inflicts a little more damage, you automatically lose the duel, Jackie. The Netherworld awaits!" – Riki laughed, victorious. He then added in his mind. – "_There's no way that Signer can win. I won't even need to play any face down, now that victory is so close."_

(Jack LP: 1450 / SPC: 7 | Riki LP: 1500 / SPC: 2)

"_He's right. If I don't get rid of that humanoid snake, he will get another chance to attack, in his next turn._" – Jack thought, taking a look at his hand. – "_I could use my __Battle Fader__, though I would rather save it for Riki's Immortal. I need to draw a good card and I need to draw it now."_

Jack drew a card and smirked when he looked at it:

"I play my Speed Spell – Silver Countrails to increase Red Dragon Archfiend's ATK by 1000."

(Red Dragon Archfiend ATK: 3000 + 1000 = 4000)

"So you gave your monster a nice boost. Mine is still stronger." – Riki disdained.

"Next I pay 5 Speed Counters to activate Sped Spell – Graveyard Trade. With this, you and I have to exchange two monsters of our Graveyards, until the End Phase. So you add Twin-Sword Marauder and Dark Resonator to your Graveyard, while I'll have Venom Snake and Venom Vyper."

(Jack LP: 1450 / SPC: 7 – 5 = 2)

"So you want to exchange our fallen monster. What's in…" – Riki then understood what the exchange of those monsters meant. – "Oh, no!"

"Oh, yes! That's the problem of monster that are powered by cards in the Graveyard." – Jack said. When the exchange was made, Riki had less two Reptile-Type monsters on his Graveyard and his Vennominaga felt the difference.

(Vennominaga, the Deity of Poisonous Snakes ATK: 4500 – 2 * 500 = 3500)

"Time to exterminate the snake, Red Dragon Archfiend." – Jack commanded and his dragon attack, wiping out Vennominaga.

"No!" – Riki hissed/roared.

(Riki LP: 1500 – 500 = 1000 / SPC: 2)

"Your move, Riki." – Jack finished.

(Jack LP: 1450 / SPC: 3 | Riki LP: 1000 / SPC: 3)

Riki didn't answer. In fact, he purposefully stopped his Duel Runner, with his head down. Jack stopped as well, right beside the Dark Signer.

"Hey, you're gonna draw or not?" – Riki didn't respond that. – "So, you're giving up, hu?"

"Now you've done it, Signer!" – Riki roared, his eyes showing nothing but anger and venom. His Mark of the Shadows glowed brighter. – "Now I'm really angry. Now that you've destroyed my Deity of Poisonous Snakes, I'm forced to use drastic measures."

With that said, Riki took off again and drew a card. It was Earthbound Immortal Cuauhcoatl.

"This is the end, Jack Atlas. Since my Vennominaga was destroyed, I can play from my deck the trap Legacy of the Deity." – Riki said and the two Hyper-Venom Counters reappeared. – "With this trap, the Hyper-Venom Counters that my monster had remain on the field as a _legacy_. Plus, I can use them as a double sacrifice to summon a monster."

"Oh, great. Here it comes." – Jack growled, fearing that monster's coming.

"By the power of the Dark Signers, I open the Door to the Netherworld and bring forth the hunger and Darkness of 5000 years! I summon Earthbound Immortal Cuauhcoatl!"

The two counters merged into an orb of light and rised into the cloudy dark sky. The orb of light exploded and turned into a beating heart made of stone. The heart began to absorb the darkness around it and exploded in a beam of light. The flames of the geoglyph of the snake grew bigger and Cuauhcoatl raised from the ground, hissing at the sky to announce its arrival.

(Earthbound Immortal Cuauhcoatl ATK: 2700 / DEF: 2600)

"_This is bad. If that behemoth strikes me, I'm done for."_ – Jack thought.

"You're done for. Cuauhcoatl, let him have it!" – Riki commanded and the God Snake dove to make its strike.

"Not so fast, snake. I special summon my Battle Fader to stop your attack." – a fiend monster that resembled a bell appeared and the sound of the bell stopped the behemoth from attack Jack.

(Battle Fader ATK: 0 / DEF: 0)

"Fine, but Cuauhcoatl can still place a Venom Counter on one of your monsters and that will be your dragon." – Riki said and Cuauhcoatl fired a red laser from its gigantic mouth against Jack's ace.

(Red Dragon Archfiend [with Tyrant Wing]: ATK: 3400 – 500 = 2900 / DEF: 2000 – 500 = 1500)

"Your move. Better make it count, because it will be your last." – Riki smirked.

(Jack LP: 1450 / SPC: 4 | Riki LP: 1000 / SPC: 4)

"We'll see about that! This isn't over yet." – Jack said.

"I disagree. Even your dragon is no match for my Earthbound Immortal. Face it, you're out matched and there's no one here to help you. You're alone." – Riki said. Jack laughed.

"Alone? I don't consider myself alone. Yusei and the others I counting on me. I'm not alone."

"I've seen how you act towards others. You were never a guy to have many friends." – Riki replied with disdain.

"Well, it's not the first time you're wrong. Yusei, Akiza, Luna, Roman and I are connected. I've learned that I need to rely on those who trust me. I've learned that from you, when you and Toby dueled Akiza and I. She had to trust me and I had to trust her, to win. And I can feel the presence of my friends' right here with me." – Jack said. Then the top card on his deck started to shine.

_Meanwhile, with Yusei…_

"Jack." – Yusei whispered, looked at his glowing Mark of the Dragon. Then his mark disappeared from his arm. – "Take my strength. We're all with you."

In other spots of the Satellite, the other three Signers were passing through the same experience.

_Back to Jack…_

"Huh? What's this?" – Jack drawing the glowing card. He then understood what to do. – "Time to kick this duel into overdrive. I summon Majestic Dragon!"

(Majestic Dragon ATK: 0 / DEF: 0)

"That thing has no ATK points." – Riki sneered.

"Good thing I don't need it to have. I tune my lv. 8 Red Dragon Archfiend and my lv. 1 Battle Fader with my lv. 1 Majestic Dragon" – the 3 monster joined to create a mighty beast emerging from light and fire. – "to Synchro Summon Majestic Red Dragon!"

(Majestic Red Dragon ATK: 4000 / DEF: 3000)

"Now I can negate your Earthbound's effect and all its ATK is now mine." – Jack said.

"You can't!" – Riki denied but it was true. The might serpent like dragon fired a beam of red light against Cuauhcoatl which was frozen in a red crystal prison.

"_This can't be! If I had placed a Venom Counter on __Battle Fader__, his monster would have been automatically destroyed and Jack wouldn't be able to pull this new dragon off."_ – Riki was mentally beating himself.

(Majestic Red Dragon ATK: 4000 + 2700 = 6700 / DEF: 3000)

"This is the union of my friends power. Go, Majestic Red Dragon!" – Jack ordered and his new monster attacked, destroying the crystal imprisoned Immortal.

(Jack LP: 1450 / SPC: 4) **WIN!**

(Riki LP: 1000 – (6700 – 2700) = 0 / SPC: 4 – 4 = 0) **LOSE!**

The blast of the attack tossed both Turbo Duelists out of their rides. As the geoglyph of the snake faded out, Jack looked at his surroundings. His whole body hurt, but he had succeeded. He sighed in relief, but it was cut short by a figure walking behind him.

"You…think you have won?" – Jack turned around and saw Riki, slowly turning into ashes. The Dark Signers was slowly walking towards the injured Signer. – "This isn't over…I won't fall alone! I'll drag you with me into the Netherworld!"

Jack jumped to the left before Riki could touch him and the Dark Signer finally turned into dust and ashes, his last words been:

"Glory to the Dark Signers!"

**Ok, the first Dark Signer has officially bit the dust! For those who liked Riki, especially Lyokosamurai, I'm sorry. I know he was a good guy, but in this fict he let his hatred and anger to consume him. Besides, been two years as a Dark Signer can change everyone's mind. In the end, his cockiness was his downfall. And finally, since he was Devack's nephew, I gave him an end similar to Devack's.**


	17. Corresponding Events

**The Path of the Dark Signers**

Underlined_ – _Cards' names

**Bold** – Author Notes

(in brackets) – Life, ATK or DEF points

_Italic – _thoughts

_Italic and centered_ – transitions

**Sorry for waiting so long for the update, but I kept my promise. Here's this chapter as a New Year's gift! Now we get to peek a little onto the Spirit World and compare the events in there with the events in the real world. In this fict, Dark Signer Leo is darker than in 'What if Leo didn't have to win?', since he passed more time as a Dark Signer. Tell me if you find any similarities in events on both worlds. The duel monsters in the spirit world only have their names underlined in their first introduction. After that they have their names shortened.**

**Happy New Year!**

**Chapter 17: Corresponding Events**

In the Spirit World, Regulus was looking over the camp of his army. The soldiers that were entrusted to him. He was the acting general of that army of fairy-type monsters, fighting the darkness of the Dark Signers.

The Dark Signer Soldiers were split into five armies: the Snake Plague led by Vennominon, The King of Poisonous Snakes, the Morphtronic Invaders led by JIGSAW Dragon, the Infernal Dogs led by Sevurus, the last Cerberus, the Terror Flyers led by Darkwing Armor Tyrant and the Shadows, whose leader was unknown. These leaders were the worshipers of the Earthbound Immortals, known to the Spirit World as the Wicked Ones.

A year ago, Vennominon, JIGSAW, Sevurus, Tyrant and the unknown leader appeared with their armies of corrupted duel monsters and began laying waste to the Spirit World. To fight this threat, five armies on the side of the light were gathered with the blessing of the Crimson Dragon, each one under the command of a Signer Dragon. The Liberation Demons led by Red Dragon Archfiend, the Shooting Stars led by Stardust Dragon, the Dragonic Guardians led by Life Stream Dragon, the Blossoming Roses led by Black Rose Dragon and the Fighters of the Light led by Ancient Fairy Dragon. However, so far only Archfiend was leading his army. The other dragons hadn't arrived yet. Which was why Regulus was leading the Fighters of Light, at the moment.

Now the Armies of Light were counter-attacking the Dark Signer Soldiers, each army facing another. Five days ago, the Liberation Demons attacked the Snake Plague and drove them off back to their castle. So far, no one knew of the outcome.

"General Regulus!" – an young boy-looking duel monster shouted, running towards the lion. He was carrying a magic staff and wearing a large metallic purple hat. – "We have news on the Liberation Demons' front!"

"What happened, Torunka?" – the leader asked.

"The Liberation Demons succeeded. Vennominon's troops have all been defeated!" – Torunka cheers. Regulus roared in victory and relief. The Duel Monsters around that heard the news cheered in their own ways. Kuribon jumped and hummed in pure joy.

"But there's more, General. During the battle, Archfiend defeated Vennominon but then they revealed their true leader, Venominaga. She practically defeated Archfiend but he managed to win. Without their leader, the Snake Plague fell."

"Those are excellent news, Torunka." – Regulus said but he knew there was something else. – "However, the battle didn't end there, am I correct?"

"That's right. The skies turned black and the Wicked One Cuauhcoatl appeared and laid waste in the Liberation Demons' front. But the mighty Crimson Dragon" – at this, all the duel monsters present bowed their head in respect of the sacred name of the Crimson Dragon. – "blessed Archfiend with the power to evolve and he defeated the Wicked one."

"I see. The Dark Signer Soldiers have the full support of their Wicked Ones if things turn bad for them." – Regulus said, pensively.

"So it seems. Life-Stream, the leader of the Dragonic Guardians has sent a message. It seems his spies learnt that the Shadows have more than one leader. They have two." – Torunka reported.

"So it's just like the Snake Plague?"

"No, it's different. The spies heard many times of the 'Twin leaders' and also that when one of the leaders is present, the other is not." – Torunka finished. Regulus hummed to himself, wondering about that.

"The Shadows…they're the army that worships the Wicked One Wiraqocha Rasca..." – the lion muttered. – "They're said to be the most powerful army and Wicked One. There's also a rumor that the Dark Signer that represents them in the Human World is the leader."

_Meanwhile, in another part of the Spirit World…_

The camp of the Shooting Stars was larger than the Fighters of the Light's. Also the soldiers looked meaner but no more evil-looking because of that. Even the harmless-looking monsters such as Sonic Chick and Quillbolt Hedgehog seemed to carry a noble determination.

The tents of the Shooting Stars were made mostly of scrap-metal. In the middle of the camp, there was the tallest of all. Inside was the current general, Road Warrior, having a meeting with his captains, Junk Warrior, Nitro Warrior and Turbo Warrior. They had decided to hold position and wait for the Terror Flyers. Many traps were planted in the battle field and trenches were dug ready for the ground units to take cover. That battle wasn't going to be easy. Their enemies could all fly.

"Only a quarter of the Shooting Stars can fly, which is kind ironic to name us like that." – comments Nitro. Turbo would lead the ground units, while Road would lead the aerial group with Junk and Nitro by his side.

"Which is why the Scrap Iron Scarecrows will be effective. Those traps will be activated right at the beginning of the first wave when the Terror Flyers make their attack." – Road instructed. – "Since our numbers are minor, the chance of blowing the first successful strike is our best weapon. It is probable they will see it coming, but they don't know how many of these traps we have."

"With all those traps surrounding our troops activated at once, the Terror Flyers' onslaught would be cancelled and before they realize what happened, we will attack with everything we've got."

"Understood, sir!" – the three captains said in union. Then a pink chick wearing boots flew into the tent and handed a piece of wrapped parchment to Junk.

"A message from the Liberation Demons, noble captains and General." – the messenger Sonic Chick said with a respectful bow.

"Thank you, Chick." – the captain said and Chick left the tent. Junk handed the message to the General who read it silently, before smiling to his captains.

"My friends, our brothers and sisters of the Liberation Demons brought great news…"

_Back on the real World, with Luna…_

Luna watched the North sky as she rode in Trudge's Security car. A few minutes prior, her mark had disappeared for a while. She sensed Jack asking for her help. Now her mark was back.

On the other hand, the geoglyph of the Snake was gone. She could only guess that Jack had won and they had one less Dark Signer to worry about. She only hoped she didn't have to do the same to her brother. That was her only thought as she kept journeying to West and to the Heron station.

_To South…_

Yusei had arrived at the Wings station but Crow was nowhere to be seen. So the Signer decided to wait for his rival and former-friend. Yusei shuffled his deck, taking quick stops to look at the cards he believe he might need most. One of these was Scrap-Iron Scarecrow.

"_Scrap-Iron Scarecrow…this was the first Trap card I've had…And it always served me well. But last time…"_ – Yusei recalled the last duel he had with Crow.

_Flashback:_

_ "Not so fast, Crow. I activate my Scrap-Iron Scarecrow."_

_ "Not so fast, Yusei." – Crow mimicked/taunted. – "I activate my Dust Tornado. Now kiss your Scarecrow goodbye, 'cause that thing never scared me."_

_ Yusei's trap card was destroyed and Gale carried on its attack._

_End of Flashback._

"_Doesn't matter. Even if Crow sees it coming, I'll use it. All my cards are equally valued to me."_ – Yusei made up his mind and continued shuffling his deck.

He stopped and took out the four Warrior Synchros of his Extra Deck: Junk Warrior, Nitro Warrior, Turbo Warrior and Road Warrior.

"I have a feeling I'll need all these 4 guys. I just hope I can call out to them when the time comes."

_Back in the Spirit World…_

The Fighters of Light were mobilizing towards the Morphtronic Invaders hold. Regulus was in the front guiding his troops. Torunka approached him once again, bearing more news.

"General Regulus! We have another message from General Archfiend." – the young magician announced.

"What is it, Torunka?" – the majestic lion asked.

"The Liberation Demons interrogated their prisoners and learnt there is another army hidden in the Netherworld, waiting for the fall of one of the Dark Signers. It seems they had this back up plan in case one of their Wicked Ones fell. This new army is called the RevengeReptiles and they worship the Wicked One Ccomnosuma, the crocodile." – Torunka said in a grim tone. Regulus sighed.

"When will they attack?"

"That's the only good new. It seems they are holding position despite the Snake Plague fall. They will enter our world after the battle of the Morphtronic Invaders with us."

_Back on the real World…_

Deep in the crater of the old Ener-D Reactor, Rex was sitting at the table in the darkness, silently observing the candles. One of them had lost its flame minutes ago.

"Riki's flame has been extinguished. As I knew it would. Now there's a vacancy for a new Dark Signer." – Rex thought about the girl that Leo and Toby had brought. Sakura was kept in her room until Rex said different. – "I could turn her into a Dark Signer right now. But she would need a motive to join our cause."

Then Rex recalled the next duel that would take place. It would be Leo VS Luna. The leader of the Dark Signers smirked.

"I believe I've just found the motive I needed for her. The Mark of the Crocodile will soon have a bearer for it." – Rex sat up and walked through the corridors of the lair of the Dark Signer. He entered Sakura's room and the girl gave him a suspicious look.

"What do you want?"

"Come with me. Leo's duel is about to begin." – Rex said and left, expecting her to follow him. Usually, Sakura would have disobeyed but the name 'Leo' triggered her to go.

They sat at the table and a condor Rex had summoned transformed into an orb of dark light that showed them what was happening in the Heron station.

Of course, Rex already knew the outcome of that duel. But the girl needed a motivation to join their ranks.

_Back in the Spirit World…_

In the camp of the Morphtronic Invaders, the tents weren't made of scrap-metal but of refined metal instead. Also those tents and equipment could transform into small items for transportation. Even though the name of the army was Morphtronic Invaders, they were no normal Morphtronics. They were Morphtronics of darkness.

Morphtronic Monster Truck entered the largest of all the tents where the General of their army was. JIGSAW was known for his madness and thirst for blood. The dark metal armored dragon made even other machine-type monsters nervous.

"General JIGSAW, the Fighters of Light are getting closer. Our soldiers are already being prepared to fight, equipped with the deadliest machines we have."

JIGSAW gave one of his famous maniac laughter/roars and stated:

"As long as we have tools, victory will be mine!"

"You mean_ ours_, right General." – Monster-Truck said, carefully. The last thing he wanted was to unpleased his General. There was a rumor about what happened to the last machine that did so…

JIGSAW turned to his subordinate and stared at him with his red empty eyes.

"Did I stutter?"

"No, General…" – Monster-Truck answered.

"One more thing, Monster-Truck. When the battle starts, I want you by my and Megatronic's side. I believe your skills will be…decisive for victory."

"You're serious?" – Monster-Truck asked surprised and rejoicing.

"Oh, yes I am. Dead serious. Now go. I have to meditate in a few matters." – JIGSAW ordered and Monster-Truck left, seeing his future glowing.

JIGSAW then looks outside and watched the horizon where his army left thousands of Duel Monster Spirits statues of metal in their wake.

"Those imprisoned Duel Monsters will be put to good use. They should feel proud. What more gracious way there is to die than to feed a God?" – JIGSAW said, slightly envying those Duel Spirits that would be sacrificed for the God he and his army worship, Huacachina Kon.

_Back in the real world…_

Leo was in his station, shuffling his deck. He knew Luna is approaching. The Dark Signer examined several equip spells he had and planed on how to use them against Luna. The he takes the only card in his Extra Deck: JIGSAW Dragon.

"My dragon's power relies on tools. As long as I have tools, I'll never lose." – Leo muttered with a faint smile. Next he saw another card: Morphtronic Monster Truck. It was a level 2 monster.

"I think I might have a place for this card with my dragon." – Leo said to himself.

_Back in the Spirit World…_

The two armies, Fighters of Light and Morphtronic Invaders met. Regulus was on the front of his troops while JIGSAW was on the front of his with Megatronic and Monster-Truck by his side.

"General JIGSAW, as leader of the Fighters of Light, I demand you surrender your army and release the Duel Spirits you have imprisoned as statues of metal. If you comply, we vow to spare your lives." – Regulus said, though he knew the enemy wouldn't surrender. The Morphtronics laugh but JIGSAW is the one who laughs louder.

"It's funny, _General_ Regulus," – JIGSAW put a lot of emphasis on the title 'General'. – "I was going to ask you the exact same thing. Except for the part of _sparing your lives_ if your surrender. Bow down to me now and I promise you all a death slightly less painful. But seen as that won't happen…CHARGE!"

The Morphtronic Invaders attacked the enemy. Monster-Truck intended to attack as well, but JIGSAW stopped him.

"General, should we join the fight?"

"No, not yet. We three will stay down for a while…until the time is right." – JIGSAW said. – "But first, a change of scenery could come in handy. Megatronic!"

Megatronic made a gesture with his hands and enormous parts of metal came out of the ground, reshaping the land.

_Back in the Real World…_

Trudge pulled over when they arrived at the station. Luna walked towards the tower and Leo appeared.

"Leo, please stop this. You don't have to continue serving the Dark Signers."

"Funny Luna. I was going to ask something _kinda like that_. It was to crawl on the ground like a worm and surrender." – Leo raised his arm and his Mark of Shadows glittered. The geoglyph of the Heron surrounded the two duelists. Trudge had to stay back. The duel was about to begin.

"_I should let some of my weaker monster been destroyed first. That way I'll have a good enough arsenal of tools to power up my __JIGSAW Dragon__. After all, what matter are tools and cards are tools, too."_

**If you liked this type of chapter – Real World/Spirit World staggering scenes – , let me now. If so, I'll keep writing it like this in the following chapters.**


	18. Duels of Pain

**The Path of the Dark Signers**

Underlined_ – _Cards' names

**Bold** – Author Notes

(in brackets) – Life, ATK or DEF points

_Italic – _thoughts

_Italic and centered_ – transitions

**WARNNING:This chapter contains a certain amount of violence, but don't worry. None of it **_**really**_** happens.**

**Chapter 18: Duels of Pain**

Crow rode on his Duel Runner, after pausing for a while to watch the sky. He sensed when Riki lost his Shadow Duel and the geoglyph of the snake vanished.

"_Poor kid._" – he thought solemnly. Riki had always been a pain in the butt, but he was their pain in the butt. The Dark Signer looked at his glowing mark and at the West sky where he can see the Mark of the Heron. He only hoped Leo wouldn't meet the same fate as Riki. As for himself, Crow just knows he won't lose to Yusei.

_Somewhere else…_

Kalin watched the geoglyph of the Heron in the sky.Tommy, Mariah and Jake were still asleep in Martha's while he went outside during dawn. He had seen the geoglyph of the snake erupting in the sky and disappearing later. Jack's duel was done; but who won? Now, the girl Luna was dueling.

"Hope I don't regret this." – Kalin said to himself as he took off to the new Shadow Duel. Kalin has had a soft spot for kids, in the years looking after Mariah, Jake and Tommy.

_In the Shadow Duel…_

"Time for a change of scenery. I play my Fortissimo, the Mobile Fortress." – Leo played his Field Spell and the twins were involved in a semi-transparent dome of metal, with several hatched in the walls. Luna stood at the bottom while Leo rose up in a metallic tower with three eye-like spheres beneath him. – "And now its effect will be kicking in. While on our Main Phase, we can summon a level 4 or lower machine type monster. Too bad you have none."

"Now I Special Summon Morphtronic Trap-Jaw in DEF. Then to join him, I bring out Morphtronic Telescope in ATK." – Leo played. While the Morphtronic Telescope was summoned normally, Trap-Jaw made its entrance through one of the eye-like orb which opened.

(Morphtronic Telescope ATK: 400 / DEF: 400)

(Morphtronic Trap-Jaw ATK: 1000 / DEF: 1000)

"I end my turn with a face down."

"Then I summon Sunlight Unicorn and activate his special ability. If I show you the top card in my deck and turns out to be an Equip Spell, I can add it to my hand." – Luna said, drawing a card.

"Ok, let's see it." – Leo said neutrally. It was indeed an Equip Spell and one of Luna's favorite.

"Guess I play it right away, the Horn of the Unicorn, to give my monster a power boost." – Luna announced.

(Sunlight Unicorn ATK: 1800 + 700 = 2500 / DEF: 1000 + 700 = 1700)

"Sunlight Unicorn, attack Morphtronic Trap-Jaw." – Luna's monster charged against Leo and pierced it with its new empowered horn, destroying it. Leo didn't seem bothered in the slightest.

"Turn end." – Luna announced. Before Leo began his turn, a hatch Fortissimo opened up and fired a red laser at Luna's shoulder, making the girl wince in pain.

"What was that?" – Luna gasped trying to contain the tears. The power of the Netherworld made the damage awfully real.

(Luna LP: 4000 – 100 = 3900 | Leo LP: 4000)

"Oh, sorry sis. Forgot to tell you that during the End Phase, if a player has no machine monsters out, Fortissimo makes them pay 100 LP." – Leo snickered at the sight of Luna's shoulder. – "Now it's my move."

_In the Spirit World…_

Megatronic made a gesture with his hands and enormous parts of metal came out of the ground, reshaping the land. The battle field was now surrounded by thick, tall wall of metal decorated with many hatches. Inside, tall towers with the same design sprouted form the ground.

"Nice change of scenery, Megatronic! With Fortissimo as our battle field, machines have the upper-hand." – JIGSAW growled in triumph. Lasers began been fired from the hatches, striking the Fighters of Light. Nevertheless, Regulus' army continued fighting bravely. Most of the Morphtronics that came against them are now torn parts lying on the ground.

"General Regulus!" – Torunka shouted, running towards his leader. – "These pillars are gradually weakening our troops!"

"How much?"

"We're still handing on, though. Fortunately, our numbers are superior to their. The Morphtronic Invaders are losing by an inch. But if JIGSAW joins the fight, that will change." - Torunka said, eyeing the enemy General for a moment. Regulus looked up at JIGSAW and two other Morphtronics by his side. So far, none of those three had joined the battle.

"_Why are JIGSAW and his two lackeys standing there, when their whole army is been torn apart?"_

From his point, JIGSAW watched the battle. His soldiers were dying all around him but no problem. They would be more useful in death.

"Megatronic, Monster-Truck!" – JIGSAW called the attention of his tow minions. – "As you know, I am a Synchro. And as such, I can't enter the battle without a ritual."

"What ritual, General?" – Monster-Truck questioned.

"Oh, you'll find out soon enough." – Megatronic said, silently.

_With Leo and Luna…_

"I play two more face downs. Next, I summon Morphtronic Chainsaw in DEF mode. And thanks to its special ability, when he's defending, he gets a nice boost. And with Fortissimo I call out Morphtronic Gauntlet in DEF." – Leo said.

(Morphtronic Chainsaw ATK: 1000 / DEF: 900 + 1000 = 1900)

(Morphtronic Gauntlet ATK: 200 / DEF: 900)

"_Now he's got three monsters."_ – Luna thought worriedly.

"Next, I activate Telescope special effect. While he's in ATK mode, he can strike you directly." – Leo smirked. – "Now, let her have it!"

Morphtronic Telescope charged, bypassing Luna's monster and hitting her harshly. Luna's nearly fell on her knees, looking at Leo with sorrowful eyes.

(Luna LP: 3900 – 400 = 3500)

"Leo…why are you hurting me?"

"Why, you'll find out soon enough. When Telescope makes a direct hit, he gets 100 extra ATK." – Leo place another face down. – "I place another face down and leave it to you."

(Morphtronic Telescope ATK: 400 + 100 = 500 / DEF: 400)

Luna tried to stand up. What hurt her more was the fact that her own brother was the one causing her pain. It pained her even more to know he was enjoying it.

"First I place one card face down. Then, Special Summon Watapon, since I just drew that card. Now I sacrifice Watapon to summon Thetys, Goddess of Light."

(Thetys, Goddess of Light ATK: 2400 / DEF: 1800)

"_Leo isn't the type of playing Traps. Right now he has four face downs. Last turn, he had one but he didn't use it. Maybe he's sparing them for later."_ – Luna pondered. – "Sunlight Unicorn, attack Morphtronic Chainsaw."

The monsters battled and Luna's prevailed.

"Now Thetys, destroy his Morphtronic Telescope." – Luna ordered the attack, hoping Leo didn't have any trap for this 2nd attack. Thetys destroyed Leo's last monster, finally damaging his LP.

(Leo LP: 4000 – [2400 – 500] = 2100)

"Nice one, sis. Now watch this! I activate my Revenge of the Meek Quick-play spell card." – Leo said, triggering one of his face downs. – "Since you destroyed a monster with less than 1000 ATK in attack mode, you're dealt with damage equal to its ATK."

The spell card fired a wave of electricity, shocking Luna mercilessly. Leo didn't even bath an eye.

(Luna LP: 3500 – 500 = 3000)

"Tired already? Come on, Luna! The party's just begun." – Leo mock-whined. – "You're no fun, you know."

Luna stood back up, this time more difficulty. The pain was like nothing she ever felt before. With a face scratched with bruises, Luna looked at her brother with teary eyes.

"Leo, please…"

"Are you done?" – Leo asked without care. Luna lowered her head in defeat.

"I end my turn." – Luna said, getting up. Fortissimo fired another laser at her and the newly inflicted pain made her fall back again.

(Luna LP: 3000 – 100 = 2900)

"My move. And prepare for the worst. I summon Morphtronic Monster Truck. And thanks to my Field Spell, Morphtronic Bluetooth will be joining." – Leo announced.

(Morphtronic Monster Truck; lv. 2; ATK: 1500 / DEF: 0)

(Morphtronic Bluetooth ATK: 300 / DEF: 900)

"Next I play my Blood Payment Spell card. Now, I can summon a monster from my deck. But I must pay that by sending from my field, hand or deck monsters in equal level to the Graveyard. Since I'm bringing out a lv. 9 monsters, I'm sending my lv. 6 Gadget Hauler and lv. 3 Morphtronic Datatron from my deck."

Leo sent the two monsters to the card Graveyard and a new card was taken from his deck.

"I special summon my Dark-Tuner Dark Megatronic."

(Dark Megatronic; Dark-Tuner; lv. 9; ATK: 0 / DEF: 0)

"A Dark-Tuner." – Luna moaned, remembering what Jack and Akiza said about those monsters.

_In the battle…_

"It's time for the ritual." – JIGSAW announced. He looked at Megatronic and nodded. Acting quickly, Megatronic turned towards Monster-Truck and his body shrunk into nine dark stars. These stars pierced through Monster-Truck's body, causing him an imaginable pain. Two of the dark stars collided with Monster-Truck's two stars and destroyed each other. The 7 remaining dark stars exploded Monster-Truck's body.

The dark stars immediately joined in a string which circulated quickly around JIGSAW like rings of a planet. Now he was ready to join the fight.

JIGSAW leaped from his place and landed on the battle field with a mechanical roar.

_Back in the duel…_

"Luna, you wanna know why I'm dueling you?" – Leo questioned but gave no time for Luna to answer. He had a serious look now, not evil like before nor silly like his usual. – "I'm doing this so that you become a Dark Signer, like me. Before, I wanted to do this as quick and painless…But after we met last night, I got this way was better. The voice of the Netherworld said so."

**(A.N.: Leo's reasons for been so harsh will be explained in the next chapter.)**

"The voice?" – Luna asked, faintly.

"You gotta be pretty crazy if you're hurting your own sister just because a voice told you to!" – a newcomer shouted. Luna, Leo and Trudge finally looked up and saw Kalin on his Duel Runner. The duel had distracted everyone that nobody heard his approach.

"What are you doing here?" – Trudge said with spite. He still distrusted these Satellite scumbags.

"Come to see how the girl was doing." – Kalin responded to him with the same tone. Leo ignored him and continued with his move.

"It's time to bring out my most trusted monster!" – Leo said, raising a Dark-Synchro card in his hand. – "I'm dark-tunning my lv.2 Morphtronic Monster-Truck with my lv. 9 Dark Megatronic for a Dark Synchro Summon!"

Like in the Duel Monster Spirit World, the same event happened between the two Dark-Synchro Material monsters. The seven dark stars span in a perfect circle, sparkling dark lightning.

"When the shadows are devoured by even darker shadows, the curtain pulls back to reveal…a world without light! I Dark-Synchro Summon JIGSAW Dragon!"

(JIGSAW Dragon; lv. -7; ATK: 2300 / DEF: 2500)

"JIGSAW Dragon, hu? The name was well picked." – Kalin commented and Trudge couldn't agree more. The red, unfocused eyes had an ever-present hint of insanity.

"It doesn't matter, anyway. His dragon can only match one of Luna's monster." – Trudge dismissed.

(Sunlight Unicorn ATK: 1800 + 700 = 2500 / DEF: 1000 + 700 = 1700)

(Thetys, Goddess of Light ATK: 2400 / DEF: 1800)

"I wouldn't bet on that one. A monster like that is bound to have special abilities." – Kalin shook his head.

"And that's true; my JIGSAW Dragon has the ability to Equip Morphtronics from my Graveyard and absorb their ATK power." – Leo said. Luna's eyes twitched in worry. – "But first things first. I activate all my three face-down cards: Double Tool C&D, Morphtronic Incinerator and Metalmorph."

"Oh, no!" – Kalin gasped.

"Double Tool C&D gives JIGSAW an even more awesome look." – Leo grinned as his dragon's left hand now carried a large drill and the right hand had a red buzz saw. – "During my turns, he gets a nice boost and when attacks you can't activate monster effects. In your turns, you can only attack him and if you do so, your monster is destroyed after the Damage Step."

(JIGSAW Dragon ATK: 2300 + 1000 = 3300 / DEF: 2500)

"And next there's Morphtronic Incinerator. Since I have a JIGSAW Dragon out, I can give up 600 LP to destroy every Morphtronic on the field and then to Equip JIGSAW with every lv.6 or below Morphtronic from the Graveyard."

(Leo LP: 2100 – 600 = 1500)

A wave of fire burnt Bluetooth and Gauntlet. Next, chunks of metal and parts floated out of Leo's card graveyard and attached themselves to JIGSAW, making the monster double, triple its original size.

(JIGSAW Dragon ATK: 3300 + 1000 + 400 + 1000 + 1200 + 1300 + 1500 + 200 + 300 = 10200 / DEF: 2500 + 1000 + 400 + 900 + 600 + 900 + 900 = 7200)

"It's power level! It's over ten thousand!" – Trudge panicked.

"And it doesn't end here! Last but not least is Metalmorph which increases my monster's ATK and DEF by 300." – Leo gloated as his monster was covered in a stronger, darker layer of metal. – "Plus, whenever he attacks, he absorbs half of his target's ATK."

(JIGSAW Dragon ATK: 10200 + 300 = 10500 / DEF: 7200 + 300 = 7500)

"_Ten thousand and five hundred points in just one turn! So that's why Leo sacrificed all those monsters._" – Luna gasped, more scared than ever before. – "Leo, you never sacrificed monsters like this to power up your dragon. You always cared for your monsters."

"They're just tools!"** – **Leo said with no emotion. Then he had an idea. – "Hey, Luna! What you say we make this duel more interesting?"

Leo's Mark of the Shadows emitted a darker glow for a moment. A string of dark light connected from Leo's chest to JIGSAW's back. The same happened with Luna's monsters and herself, except that her string of light was white.

"Shadow Duels only make Direct and Effect Damage real. Now even Battle Damage becomes real. When our monsters are destroyed, we feel the pain they feel. And with JIGSAW super-powered…well, you're about to find out." – Leo said with a heartless, smug smile. Luna understood what this meant; the pain would be unbearable. So much, it might even…

"Hey, you punk! How can you put your own sister through that, hu?! Answer me!" – Kalin snarled, clenching his teeth. He only wished he could pass through the fire of the geoglyph and punch Leo in the jaw.

"JIGSAW Dragon, attack Sunlight Unicorn and teach my sister what real pain feels like!" – Leo ordered and his monster towered above Luna's.

"Leo!" – Luna begged.

(JIGSAW Dragon ATK: 10500 + [2500 ÷ 2] = 11750)

"You're lucky my dragon can't hurt your LP, though he _can_ hurt you."

JIGSAW activated his drill and buzz saw and slaughtered Sunlight Unicorn with them. Luna screamed like never before, the pain form his monsters shared with her. The girl couldn't take it and fell into unconsciousness.

_In the spirit world…_

JIGSAW emitted a roar like thousands of engines rocketing and unleashed a wave of flames from his mouth at his own soldier, burning nearly his entire army. When he's done, the scorched parts of his dead soldiers merge with his body, making him grow supersized.

"What is going on?" – Torunka panicked. – "What's gotten into him?"

"He's devouring his own army to become more powerful." – Regulus roared. – "You! Don't you even value your own troops, you abomination?!"

"They're just tools." – JIGSAW said, his voice like a thunder as he begins laying waste in the Fighters of Light frontier.

Unbeknownst to both sides of the battle, the events where been watched by a scout: Infernity Mirage.

"I better warn the others about this." – he whispered before silently disappearing.

_In the Dark Signers' lair…_

Back in pit where the old Ener-D reactor was stationed, Rex and Sakura, observed the Shadow Duel between the twins.

"Leo…" – Sakura remembers her old life before she met Leo and Luna. She passed through many hardships. She doesn't like how Leo is treating his own sister, but she can feel that Leo is crying. – "Why are you doing this?"

Rex watched another part of the Satellite. The geoglyph of the wings has just been ignited. Crow's Shadow Duel had begun. Though Rex already knew who would stand victorious when both these duels were over.

_In the station of the wings…_

"Now, let's begin, just like the _old days._" – Crow said, activating his Speed World. The geoglyph of the wings rose around them; another Shadow Duel had begun. – "I'll let you go first, _friend_."

"With pleasure, _friend_." – Yusei retorted, drawing his sixth card.

(Yusei LP: 4000 / SPC: 0 | Crow LP: 4000 / SPC: 0)

"I'll start with my good old Speed Warrior in DEF. I'll end it with two face downs."

(Speed Warrior ATK: 900 / DEF: 400)

"My turn!"

(Yusei LP: 4000 / SPC: 1 | Crow LP: 4000 / SPC: 1)

"I play Speed Spell – Double Summon to be allowed a second Normal Summoning. So I bring out Darkwing – Fuha, the Breeze; he may be a level 8, but thanks to his ability I can summon him without a sacrifice."

(Darkwing – Fuha, the Breeze; lv. 8; ATK: 600 / DEF: 0)

"And since I have a Darkwing on the field, I can Special Summon Darkwing – Gale the Whirlwind. And now to use my speed spell, come on out Darkwing – Elphin the Raven."

"Oh, no." – Yusei muttered, remembering their special effects.

"Oh, no is right, Yusei! With Elphin Normal Summoned through his special ability, I can change the battle position of one of your monster. And guess who the unlucky target is." – Crow gloated. Elphin roared and Speed Warrior changed from blue to its normal colors.

(Speed Warrior ATK: 900)

"And speaking of special abilities, Fuha can transfer its ATK to Elphin for one turn. This gives him a nice power boost."

(Darkwing – Elphin the Raven ATK: 2200 + 600 = 2800 / DEF: 1200)

"Time for Gale to use _his_ ability. To halve Speedy's points and make him even weaker."

(Speed Warrior ATK: 900 ÷ 2 = 450 / DEF: 400 ÷ 2 = 200)

"_Not good._" – Yusei thought.

"Now, Gale, dish out some pain for me, will you?"

Gale made a nose dive towards Speed Warrior and annihilated him, leaving Yusei unprotected.

(Yusei LP: 4000 – (1300 – 450) = 3150)

"Fuha, pick up where Gale left off." – Crow's second monster prepared to strike Yusei.

"Guess again, Crow. I activate…" – Yusei was cut off by Crow's snide remark.

"Scrap-Iron Scarecrow? Please, you would expect me not know when you play that old card?"

"Yeah, well, apparently you didn't see it coming, this time." – Yusei retorted.

"_What makes you think I didn't?"_ – Crow continue to grin as Fuha was repelled by Yusei's trademark trap. – "_He still has another face down left. Only one way to find out what it is."_

"Elphin, do your thing." – Crow's third monster prepared to strike.

"Your Elphin isn't doing anything. I activate Burst Synchro Summon. It makes your attack to my LP become 0 and lets me summon a Synchro whose ATK is equal to the amount of points I would have lost." – Yusei announced. – "Elphin has 2800 ATK, so come on out Nitro Warrior."

(Nitro Warrior ATK: 2800 / DEF: 1800)

"Turn end." – Crow said and Elphin's ATK returned to normal.

(Darkwing – Elphin the Raven ATK: 2800 – 600 = 2200 / DEF: 1200)

_In the battle…_

Nitro and Junk observed as the Terror Flyers approached, most of their forces in a nose dive. They were going to attack them head on from the sky. They couldn't see Armor Tyrant anywhere, not on the fornt line nor in the back.

"Don't tell me that coward didn't have the guts to fight!" – Nitro growled.

"Forget it. If he's not here, it will only make things easier for us." – Junk said. He and Nitro were flying with the few flying monsters of their army. Beneath them were the ground units, under the command of Turbo.

"Hold your position." – Nitro ordered to their soldiers in the air. The Terror Flyers were approaching…

"Steady…steady…" – Junk communicated with Turbo. – "Now!"

"All units!" – Turbo shouted to his forces. – "Activate all Scrap-Iron Scrarecrows!"

The aerial dark monsters felt like they had collided with an invisible dome shielding the Shooting Stars and next were pushed away.

"Now it's our chance! Charge!" – Junk shouted and the flying Shooting Stars went into attack through the disoriented Terror Flyers. Nitro and Turbo went up against Gale and Elfin, who were accompanied by a much smaller Darkwing.

_In the station of the Wings…_

(Yusei LP: 3150 / SPC: 2 | Crow LP: 4000 / SPC: 2)

"I summon Junk Synchron and use his special ability to bring Speed Warrior back." – Yusei announced. – "You know what this means, don't you?"

"Just great." – Crow snarled. He thought he could deal with Nitro Warrior alone, for now. But with another Synchro.

"Let's rev it up!" – Yusei shouted and his two trusty monsters gave entrance to a new one. – "I Synchro Summon Junk Warrior!"

(Junk Warrior ATK: 2300 / DEF: 1300)

"Now attack those Darkwings!" – Yusei commanded. Junk Warrior went for Gale the Wilrwind and Nitro Warrior decimated Elphin the Raven.

Watching his two monsters been annihilated before his eyes made something in Crow's mind snap. Something was coming back! He saw…Hikari and Daichi where Gale and Elphin were supposed to be! Crushed by Yusei's monster!

(Yusei LP: 3150 / SPC: 2 | Crow LP: 4000 – (2300 – 1300) – (2800 – 2200) = 2400 / SPC: 2 – 1 = 1)

"YUSEI!" – Crow roared, his eyes glowing purple. His anger enhancing his Dark Signer powers and vice-versa. – "You've never changed in these 4 years!"

"What?"

"You cared for my kids just as much as you care for your opponent's monsters, right?! Well I'll make you care! Time to take this Shadow Duel up a notch!" – Crow's Mark of the Wings emitted beam of dark light. The monsters on the field glowed the same way for a time until it faded. Virtually nothing had changed.

"What have you done, Crow?"

"I' just added a new rule." – Crow said with a dangerous frown. – "Every time one monster is destroyed, its owner will see someone they love suffer in its place. You can try to ignore the images all you want, but you'll see them and hear them like I did! My move!"

(Yusei LP: 3150 / SPC: 3 | Crow LP: 2400 / SPC: 2)

The odds seemed to be on the Signer's side. Yusie had both Nitro and Junk, both tough Synchros, along with his Scrap-Iron Scarecrow face down. Crow, on the other hand, only had Fuha with 600 ATK.

"The last monster I have is Fuha. And I knew you wouldn't bother to attack it. That was a major mistake."

"Oh, yeah. And why's that?"

"Darkwing – Fuha, the Breeze is actually a Dark Tuner." – Crow revealed, pleased with Yusei's surprised look. – "And it can only use deceased monsters as Synchro material. This is what you get for destroying my monsters." – Crow said, recovering a monster card from his graveyard.

"I tune lv. 3 Darkwing – Gale the Whirlwind with lv. 8 Darkwing – Fuha the Breeze for a Dark Synchro Summon. Come on out, Darkwing – Silverwind, the Terror!"

(Darkwing – Silverwind, the Terror; lv. -5; ATK: 2800 / DEF: 2000)

"Since Silverwind was just summoned, he can automatically destroy two of your monsters whose DEF is weaker than his ATK. And since it's not an attack, your Scarecrow won't save you." – Crow smirked. – "What goes around, comes around!"

Silverwind strapped his staff on the ground and a dark aura appeared surrounding and consuming both monsters.

"And don't forget that when your monsters suffer, you see your friends suffer."

"No!" – Yusei screamed as he watched Akiza and Jack wasting away in the place of his two just-fallen Synchros.


	19. A (possible) farewell gift

**The Path of the Dark Signers**

**I am sorry to tell you that this fic may be discontinued. I've been slowly losing interest in it, as my other fict ****The Human Empire**** and my work life have been slowly killing me. But don't cry; I might one day re-continue this piece of work. But if that doesn't happen, here's a little gift to thank you for been kept up until now. I know it isn't much but I've updated a deviant of the whole Dark Signer group (except Sakura since she hadn't become one yet).**

**Orichalcosdark . deviantart gallery / 35204559# / art / My-Dark-Signers-293862150?_sid=4fc5b7ce**

**If this doesn't work, go to my profile and you'll find the link for my gallery on the top. Now a special thanks for the readers that I've shred this experience with:**

**Aldamonburst – Your criticism was always well-accepted. For many times I did mistakes with the cards and I thank you for correcting me. I appreciate been told when I'm wrong. **

**Signerleo – From all the readers, you were ready to give ideas for Leo's play on this fict. I even accepted your OC Sakura. Thanks for all the ideas!**

**Guest – It came to me the idea that you liked Riki's character. I don't know if that's true or not, but I can't really tell since you're one of my most recent readers and I have no idea how to contact you. But thanks anyway, friend. Oh, and I don't know if I've told you this before, but the mark of the snake is my own invention and has nothing to do with Red Nova. The mark of the snake doesn't even exist in the nazca lines.**

**Azure blue espeon – Sorry I discontinued this before Crow's last duel ended. I know he was your favorite and was thinking about after the Dark Signer saga ended, I wrote his story in Satisfaction Town. But who know, there's still hope I'll be back.**

**Brandon Graham 88 – I would have preferred you told me something more besides the same sentence in every chapter. Still, you always read my ficts and for that, thanks!**


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